A Griffin's Tale
by melodicmoonstar89
Summary: Arion Black thought she was another orphan who was a little weirder than most. But, soon after her 11th birthday, she finds out that not all is as it seems as she learns about her past as well as what it has to do with her future. AU
1. Melody Dreams

_Chapter 1: Melody Dreams___

_**The dream starts off creepily enough. A girl looks on in confusion as a man she only recognizes as her father walks into a destroyed house. He seems to be pleading with a giant of a man to give him the bundle in the giant's arms.**_

"_**He's my godson, James and Lily would have wanted him to have come with me and my daughter."**_

"_**I have my orders from Dumbledore to take little Harry to his relatives. I don't know the plans. Talk to him about it later..."**_

_**The scene changes as the giant leaves and her father looks on in despair. Now, it's a crowded city street and she sees not only the man she knows as her father, but she sees her baby self and another man.**_

"_**Peter, how could you tell Voldemort about where James and Lily were? They were always there when no one else would be! Now, not only are the dead, but little Harry has to grow up with those monsters known as the Dursley's!" her father yelled at the other man. "Remus, James, Lily and I trusted you!"**_

_**The other man, Peter, didn't say anything, but seemed to have a calculating look in his eyes. The baby looked on in confusion before starting to sniffle a bit.**_

_**An idea flashed in the other man's eyes before he yelled out "Lily and James dead! Sirius, how could you!" And before Sirius could do anything, Peter put on an evil smile before cutting off his finger and causing an explosion, covering up his transformation to a rat. Something started burning her left shoulder and...**_

Knock, knock

A pair of stormy, grayish blue eyes shot open at the sound at the door. The person outside waited a moment before shouting in.

"Arion Black, wake up. Someone is here to see you!" the person on the other side yelled in before walking off.

Eleven year old Arion Black let out a sigh of relief. She had been deep into another nightmare when there was an explosion, screaming, and a pain in her left shoulder. Getting out of bed, Arion grabbed a faded pair of jeans and an old red T-shirt before running a hairbrush through her shoulder-length black hair. Running into the bathroom while pulling on a pair of old sneakers, she brushed her teeth and ran down to the main office of the orphanage.

When Arion got there after crashing into five other kids, she saw the owner was talking to a stern-looking older woman.

"Ah, hello Arion. This is Professor McGonagall who works at a boarding school in Scotland. I'm just going to leave you two to talk," the owner said before leaving the two to study each other.

'Well, the girl certainly favors her father in the looks department,' Professor McGonagall thought.

"Hello, Professor. I'm kinda confused about why I've been chosen for going to this boarding school. Especially since I can't afford it," Arion told McGonagall, looking confused.

McGonagall dug into her purse at her side before pulling out a letter from her pocket labeled to 'Miss Arion Black Room 13 Liverpool Orphanage, England" and handing it to the person it was addressed to. "Maybe you should read your letter before asking any questions and I'll answer them."

Arion took the letter, noting the thickness and feel of the paper. She ignored the brief pictures that popped into her head of an old man with twinkling blue eyes talking to an angry man with dark hair and eyes. Opening it, she took out the paper inside and a look of comprehension dawned on her face as she came to the end.

"So, I'm a witch?" Arion asked for clarification. Before McGonagall could answer, Arion continued. "That would explain a few things..."

"Like what?" McGonagall asked.

"Oh, a couple of times when a kid here has made me angry their hair has mysteriously turned to a different color. I can also change the color of my hair and eyes," Arion said before demonstrating, turning her eyes green and hair red before going back to the natural gray and black. "I can also see, when something has been written in ink or lead, a scene of when the letter, report, or whatever else it could be when it was written after touching it. Sometimes, though very rarely, I can see some things from a person's past, but only if I have some sort of connection to them before I shake their hand. Like, if there's someone I met when I was younger and I shook their hand for the first time in a few years, I can sometimes see what has been happening to them. But, I usually see it in dreams," she finished.

McGonagall was slightly shocked to say the least. How could this girl, especially one the wizarding world had been looking for, have completely escaped the radar having that sort of magical power? "Well, if you want to, we can go and get your school supplies for Hogwarts," McGonagall was able to get out calmly enough.

Arion frowned. "How am I supposed to get my stuff if I'm completely broke?" she asked.

McGonagall sighed. She was not looking forward to telling this young girl what happened a decade before. But, she knew that Arion would have to be told before she entered the wizarding world. Because if it was a sink or swim situation when she entered, without knowing what happened, there was no way that she could do anything but sink...

**A/N: I have a bad updating habit (look at my other stories...), but I have liked this one so far and plan on working on a couple of my other ones later. This is, however, the first Harry Potter story I have put up. Not the first I have written, though. If you want to give ideas for the story, feel free. The next chapter is almost finished, just a couple things to touch up on. I'm also moving soon, and won't have internet access for anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks. So, ta ta for now!  
Oh, and I'm curious as to if anyone can guess where the title comes from...**

Updated May 28, 2007: I read through this last fall and found a few typos that I just never corrected. Sorry! Some things might make more sense now that Sirius isn't "pleading with a giant of a man to the giant…"

Oh, the title (since no one wanted to guess…-sniff sniff-) comes from her name, meaning "With Melody" and the fact that it starts off with her dreaming.


	2. Completed Pasts and Weird Wands

_Chapter 2: Completed Pasts and Weird Wands_

"It all begins close to thirty or so years ago when a wizard rose to take over. You-know-who..." McGonagall started before Arion interrupted.

"I'm sorry, who?"

"You-know-who."

"Sorry, I don't know who..."

McGonagall sighed. "Right, you wouldn't know. He was known as...Lord Voldemort," she said with a shudder. "No one likes to say his name because of all the horrible things he did. He killed muggles, muggle-borns, anyone against him, and anyone who wouldn't join him. In other words, you were with him or against him.

"Things started getting really bad about fifteen years ago. Almost everyday there was a death somewhere caused by his followers, known as the Death Eaters. Finally, he met his downfall at the Potter's residence on Halloween a couple months after you turned one. James and Lily Potter, your godparents, were murdered. But, little Harry Potter survived with a lightning shaped scar where some people think the killing curse deflection before killing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"Now, they had three close friends. Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and your father, Sirius Black had been friends for years. The Potter's has been hidden with a spell where the information where they were located was hidden in that person..."

"And let me guess," Arion interrupted, face paling. "They couldn't be found unless the Secret-Keeper told the person and that was my father."

"Right," McGonagall said with a sad look in her eye for the girl. "We're sure Sirius Black was his second-in-command. The next day, Peter cornered Black and yelled..."

"'Lily and James dead! Sirius, how could you?" Arion finished, looking far away.

McGonagall looked at her in surprise. Thinking that there was more to Sirius Black's daughter then met the eye. "How did you know that?" she asked Arion gently.

Arion shook her head before focusing on the woman in front of her instead of the thoughts in her head. "I dream about it every so often. I see a completely destroyed house. Then the scene shifts and I see the man, Peter? cut off his finger before whipping out his wand from behind his back, an explosion, a sharp pain in my left shoulder, and then showing up at the orphanage, which caused problems..." she trailed off.

McGonagall shook her head after hearing this. "Perhaps after we go to Diagon Ally we can go to Hogwarts..." McGonagall focused on Arion. "Perhaps I can see about having you stay at Hogwarts."

Arion's face lit up. "Are you going to adopt me? I'll be good, I promise!"

"Wouldn't you miss your friends?"

Arion blushed. "I'm pretty friendly, but when someone makes one of my friends upset, they...umm..."

"Prank them?" McGonagall asked with a small smile that Arion nodded to. "So, when your friends got adopted, no one would talk to you...well, let's go get your supplies then talk to Professor Dumbledore before we make decisions."

Arion nodded. "When do we go?"

"Let's go now." So, taking Arion's hand, McGonagall signed her out and hailed the Knight Bus.

"Warning: this bus goes very fast and takes sharp turns. Also brakes without warning," McGonagall said while counting the fare.

Arion went to a seat near the front while waiting for McGonagall. Her head was spinning from the information she recently learned. Sirius Black being a murderer? She had known that accusation form muggle newspapers. The problem, she thought as she rubbed the place where she had a weird star-shaped scar from...the explosion? was that how could it have been her father (which she also found weird to think about) when she didn't remember him taking out his wand...

Arion was jolted from her thoughts by being sent flying forwards. After she was slammed to the right before the conductor caught her and put her back in her seat, muttering "I should retire...this is getting old..."

McGonagall sent her another small smile before they heard "Diagon Ally, The Leaky Cauldron," thus signaling the end of the nightmarish ride.

Entering the pub, Arion put on a brave face as she noticed all sorts of creepy looking people. She followed McGonagall out of the pub to the back where the bricks of the wall and the dustbins were. After tapping the bricks, McGonagall said, "Welcome to Diagon Ally."

Arion's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Here was a place extremely and so obviously magical. 'Though' she thought after grabbing McGonagall's hand, 'I wish it was a little less crowded...'

While walking, another thought, even though she had asked a couple times, latched onto her brain and stayed there. "How am I gonna pay for my stuff?" Arion asked.

"Usually, students from orphanages would use the fund Hogwarts has set up, but you have an account already since you were just missing, not someone who was just...there. You were known in the wizarding community," McGonagall explained.

Arion nodded and followed McGonagall into the bank where they saw a giant of a man and a small black-haired boy standing at a counter.

"Good afternoon, Hagrid," McGonagall greeted the man before turning to the boy. "Hello, Harry. I'm Professor McGonagall," she said, extending her hand in greeting.

"Hello, Professor," Harry said before turning to Arion. "Hello."

"Hi, my name's Arion Black," Arion said before shaking Harry's hand. She gasped as a stream of visions stormed into her subconscious. 'That's weird' she thought as she pulled back. 'That hasn't happened in a very long time...'

"Harry Potter."

"Hello Miss Black. Rubeus Hagrid's my name, jus' call me Hagrid," the giant man said kindly.

"Pleasure to meet you, Hagrid. Call me Arion."

"Well, we have our business to attend to. See you at Hogwarts Mr. Potter, Hagrid," McGonagall said, ushering Arion to another counter.

"Bye," Hagrid, Harry, and Arion called to each other.

After showing the goblin Arion's vault key, a goblin, Moonscar, showed them to the vault.

Arion loved the ride. McGonagall didn't look like she enjoyed it very much, but didn't look sick. Arion's mouth dropped open again when seeing the contents of the vault.

"Grab mostly the bronze Knuts and silver Sickles, but do grab some gold Galleons," McGonagall suggested. Arion nodded and grabbed some while McGonagall explained the currency.

After going to get Arion's supplies, with some extras ("Shouldn't I learn more about Hogwarts while I can? And, Potions looks like it could be quite complicated" when Arion wanted Hogwarts: A History and another possible first year potions book) all that was left was a pet and a wand.

"Let's get your wand before getting you a pet," McGonagall and Arion nodded eagerly. She was slightly distracted from when she was getting her school robes...

_**FLASHBACK**_

Arion entered by herself, McGonagall going to grab a cauldron and stuff needed for astronomy class. Upon entering, a witch swooped down on her.

"Hello, first year of Hogwarts?" the witch asked.

"Yes," Arion answered.

"Go out back, there is a young man being measured," the witch told her, pushing Arion into the direction a blonde boy was standing.

The boy was looking frustrated. "What's taking so long?" he asked.

Arion walked to the other stool beside the boy. "Hello," he greeted. "First year?"

"Yes, I am," Arion told him.

"I can't wait to go. Though, I think I might have to sneak in my broomstick. It would be a crime it I wasn't chosen to be on the team," he said, leaving Arion to think 'What team?' "What house do you want to be in?" he asked.

"Umm...haven't really thought about it..." Arion admitted, not informing the boy that she had only known she was going to Hogwarts for maybe five hours.

"I want to be in Slytherin. My family has been in that house for generations. Though, there is a miniscule possibility that I could be in a different house. After all, look at what happened to the Black family...but, I really don't think they should let muggle-borns in."

"Well, why not? Everyone should have the same opportunity to learn!" Arion said, slightly angry. 'I guess even the wizarding world has prejudices,' she thought.

The boy was about to say something when a witch told him he was done. Without saying anything more, the boy left with his purchases, leaving behind a smug Arion. Who knew the boy would look that good with green hair...

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Shaking her head, Arion followed the professor into the wand shop.

Inside was dark, dusty, and full to the brim with boxes. An object that looked like it was a chair at one point was on the floor. Soon after coming in, the owner popped up, effectively jumping Arion.

"Well, hello Miss Arion Black. After seeing Mr. Potter, I was curious as to when I would see you," the man, Olivander she assumed, said.

"Good afternoon."

Arion took a good look at the man. He was old but the one thing that struck Arion when she looked at him were his silver eyes. Meeting his eyes, she had to fight down a shiver because the eyes seemed to go right to her soul.

"You look like your father. It's like it was just yesterday he was in here looking for his wand. Twelve inches long, springy, made with ebony. Excellent for offensive and defensive magic."

Arion gulped and nodded. 'He must have a photographic memory…I wonder if he remembers what Voldemort's wand was made of?' she thought before he continued talking.

"Your mother had an interesting wand. Eight inches, stiff, made with holly. Didn't have any strong points to it, though. From what I heard, she was better with numbers then magic."

Arion's curiosity was sparked. Her mother? She didn't know anything about her mother. Everything she knew about her parents she knew about her dad. Arion didn't even know her mum's name.

"Each wand is different, just like every witch and wizard is different. No one can get the same results using someone else's wand. The closest you can even get to satisfactory work with another wand would be if it was the brother or sister wand."

"Now, let's measure you to find the length of the wand. Which is your wand hand?"

"Umm...my left hand?" Arion said, sort of questioning.

"Good, good," Olivander muttered, looking at the numbers popping up. He left to start picking out a wand.

Arion, after getting rid of the tape measure that was wrapped around her finger, was handed a wand. "Eight inches, holly and unicorn hair," Olivander told her.

After Arion took the wand, she could tell this was not the wand. Olivander gave her wand after wand before stopping and really looking closely at her.

"Another tricky customer, eh? Maybe...hmm...why not?" he muttered before going into the back of the store.

Arion sent McGonagall a stressed look before paying attention to Olivander.

"I've never been able to get anyone to be even close to his wand. Not many people would be able to use this wand because of the picky nature. It's nine inches encased in ash with a griffin feather core and quite springy."

Arion held the wand and sparks started shooting out of the wand tip. Flashes of people holding the wand and the making of the wand streaked across her mind, including some things from the creature itself.

McGonagall gave a little laugh when the griffin wand accepted her. When Arion looked at her with a confused expression, McGonagall explained, "All the Black's have been in Slytherin except your father and you cousin who was born after her mother was disowned. I'm trying to imagine the look on your grandparents faces if they knew about your griffin wand!"

Arion nodded in understanding, smiling a little. She also made a mental note to look into her family tree. "Could we go pick out a pet now?"

McGonagall nodded. So after paying for her wand, Arion went to the pet shop.

"Owls, cats, or toads...I don't care for toads, but I can't chose between an owl or a cat..."Arion said, half to McGonagall, half to herself.

"Well, owls are more useful for mail, so unless you have someone to send mail to, I would recommend a cat. Especially since there's owls at the school," McGonagall said.

Arion nodded before looking around at the cats. Finally, she found a kitten with white fur with blue eyes. It almost looked like each of her paws and tail had been dipped in ink.

"I like this one..." Arion pointed out to the attendant. After getting the stuff she would need to take care of a kitten, Arion walked out of the store, not paying attention to where she was going since she was thinking of a name for her cat. McGonagall smiled and led her to an area that was cleared as an apparition point.

"To get to Hogwarts, we're going to apparate to a place called Hogsmeade. It will feel weird, but you'll be alright," McGonagall said. Arion nodded.

"What do you think of Adria as a name for my kitten?" Arion asked before they apparated.

"It's lovely," McGonagall said before they disappeared.

**A/N: Ok, I was able to get this chapter up a lot sooner then I thought...but, I know I won't update for a while after this. After all, we move...err...this morning since it's after midnight. But, all I have to do is type chapter 3. Though, I might restart chapter 4...if anyone gets any ideas, I would love to hear them! Please read and review!**

Updated May 28, 2007


	3. Interesting Sights and Meetings

_Chapter 3: Interesting Sights and Interesting Meetings_

Arion opened her eyes. After doing so, she regretted the move immediately. 'Not sure which I prefer, the Knight Bus or Apparating,' she thought, trying to keep her stomach.

"Welcome to Hogsmeade. I sent Professor Dumbledore a message saying we were coming while in London, so we should have a carriage waiting for us to Hogwarts. Are you alright?" McGonagall asked upon seeing Arion standing there with her eyes closed.

"I'm alright…just a little dizzy," Arion said, finally opening her eyes.

"Well, let's go get into the carriage," McGonagall said, understanding the distorted feeling Arion was experiencing. Arion nodded before following McGonagall to a carriage, but came to a stop when she saw what was pulling them.

"Ummm…what are those?" Arion asked, slightly wary of the weird horse-like things.

"Thestrals. I'll explain it all in time. Come, let's go."

Arion went into the carriage and they spent the ride in silence. When they got in view of the castle, her jaw dropped open in shock at the size of the castle. The two got out and started making their way to the headmaster's office, McGonagall pointing things of importance out.

"There's the Great Hall…in that direction is the charms classroom, Taught by Professor Flitwick…that direction is my classroom…oh! Hello Professor Snape. This is Arion Black," McGonagall said to the younger man.

"Minerva, Black," Snape said with a look of loathing on his face when he looking at Arion. He continued walking in the direction he had been heading in. Arion kept looking after him.

"Who was that?" Arion asked McGonagall.

"Professor Severus Snape. He's the Potions master."

"Why does it look like he hates me even though he doesn't know me?" Arion asked, trying to connect where she had seen him before.

"Severus didn't like your father very much. Let's leave it there for now…" McGonagall said, not wanting to go into the past.

Arion nodded. She noticed they were outside a weird stone gargoyle.

"I'm going to leave you off here. Go up the stairs to meet Professor Dumbledore, he's expecting you. Jellybeans," McGonagall said, before going off in the direction of her classroom to think about the young girl she spent the day with.

Arion took a deep breath before going up the staircase that opened up, kitten in tow. Her hands were slightly shaking before she clenched them into fists and knocked on the door. A "come in" was heard from the other side.

There were two men on the other side of the door. One was wearing a pin-stripped cloak and had dark gray hair. The other was wearing purple robes with silver and gold stars. Seeing the twinkling blue eyes reminded her of where she saw Snape; the vision she had from her Hogwarts letter.

"Ah, the girl I was waiting for. Sorry, Cornelius, but this will have to wait until later," the other man with the stars, Dumbledore she guessed, told the other man.

"You had better, Albus. That little Black girl is supposed to be here this year. I want to see what we find out about Black from her," Cornelius said, leaving. He didn't even notice Arion's flinch at the "little Black girl" comment.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled even more as he looked at Arion. "Well, hello 'little Black girl'. Welcome to Hogwarts. You've managed to put the ministry in the same amount of panic they would be in if Mr. Potter were to disappear from under our noses."

Arion sighed and rolled her eyes at what she would call the "lBg" comment. "Hello Professor Dumbledore. Er…I'm afraid that I'm not entirely sure why I'm here now."

"Yes. Professor McGonagall told me about a certain ability you seem to have. About the parchment and visions," he started.

"Oh! I know now. I got one when I touched my Hogwarts letter, actually," Arion informed Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled a little bit more. "Oh, what did you see?"

"I saw you and that man, Snape, talking about something. He looked angry about something," Arion admitted.

"That in fact did happen. The last time I saw him that angry was when your cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, tripped and dumped a potion on him, turning his hair and face pink," Dumbledore commented, eyes twinkling at the memory.

Arion pictured the man she saw earlier with his head pink and laughed, deciding it was a rather entertaining picture. Then she remembered when she saw Harry at Gringott's and decided to mention it. "Sometimes, if I've been really close to a person and re-meet them, I can see important events that have happened in their lives."

"So, meeting Harry must have been interesting…"Dumbledore mused.

"Yes, it was to say the least. The only other person it's happened to at that level is my friend, Hermione, at school," Arion admitted.

"There's someone I'm going to want you to re-meet. But, that's for another time. Now, for your appearance changes, maybe you should try and talk to your cousin whom I've already mentioned. Now, my question for you is do you remember what happened between your father and Peter Pettigrew at all?" Dumbledore asked.

Arion, who had been paying close attention to what Professor Dumbledore was saying, suddenly looked out the window. She was lost in thought. "Yes, I do remember what happened that day," she answered finally.

"I'm going to have to ask Cornelius Fudge to come. As you heard, he wants to hear what you say…" Dumbledore said.

Arion interrupted his train of thought. "Can I meet some of my family and have them here?" she asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "Your father didn't care for his cousin Narcissa and the Malfoy's, nor any other of his family, and Andromeda passed away about two years ago, but Nymphadora can come and I'm sure she would want to see you. Not to mention a very close friend of your father's."

Arion nodded. To think, yesterday she was Arion Andromeda Black, just another girl in an orphanage. Today, she found out about her father and found she had a family. And, it was only about six o'clock.

**A/N: Woohoo! I have internet back! And, I have several more chapters to this story and direction to another story, so things are pretty good. I won't put all of the chapters up at once because then it may be a while before the chapter after that, but I'll try to update at least once a week. Well, all I can say is please review!**

Updated May 28, 2007


	4. A Parent's Sacrifice

_Chapter 4: A Parent's Sacrifice_

Arion was extremely nervous. She would be meeting with the Minister of Magic to give a testimony of an event that had happened almost a decade before in about an hour. An event she probably wouldn't even completely remember if it weren't for her dreams. To add insult to injury, she wasn't allowed to see any of her family beforehand in case they said something to make her change her testimony. Though, Dumbledore had asked for them to be there during the account.

Thankfully, she was allowed to continue talking to Professor Dumbledore. Arion wasn't sure what she wanted to talk about, though, so she stayed quiet for a little while.

"Why so quiet, Arion? I know neither of your parents were quiet people," Dumbledore asked.

"I…wait, my parents? Then you must know something about my mother," Arion said, losing any touch of nervousness she may have had.

"Yes, I knew her. Very bright girl while she was here, she was the only one to ever foil a prank the marauders pulled," Dumbledore remembered, looking at the girl in front of him, seeing the partially blue eyes of her mother. There were also other very small details that could have only come from her mother.

"Was there anything else? I don't even know her name," Arion said.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't remember. She was Adrianna McKinnon. Her sister, Marlene, was killed before your mother passed away, but they were both very well liked in the school. The only pair that caused more trouble then them were your father and James Potter," Dumbledore said.

Arion asked, "Did mum ever go by Adria?"

"Yes, that was her nickname with her friends and family. Adria was very excited when she found out she was going to have you. Unfortunately, the Death Eaters took that away," Dumbledore said, sadly.

"What happened?"

"Your father's cousin, Bellatrix, used a spell. If Adria hadn't used her magic to try and counteract the spell, it would have caused her to have a very painful miscarriage. As it was, Adria used her healing magic to keep the miscarriage from happening, but it caused her to go into labor early and she wound up passing on soon after," Dumbledore said.

"Did she ever have a locket?" Arion asked, sad about what happened to her mother.

"I believe Sirius gave her one on their one year anniversary. Why?" Dumbledore asked, curious.

Arion pulled a necklace out from under her old shirt. "I've had this since I was in the orphanage. Actually, the people at the orphanage said they found the locket _in_ my shoulder. Apparently I was trying to get it out of my shoulder when I suddenly appeared there," Arion answered, showing the necklace to Dumbledore. "The initials 'AMB' and 'SAB' are on the back and I know my dad is Sirius Black, explaining the 'S' and 'B' in the second group."

Dumbledore looked between the necklace and Arion, trying to think about the connection between the two. He could feel slight traces of magic remaining on the locket, but not the chain. "Have you opened it before?"

"Yes, there are two pictures inside, but whenever I look they're moving. I take it that's what pictures do here, right?" Arion asked.

"Correct. Here, why don't you try one of the sweets we have here," Dumbledore suggested, handing her a Chocolate Frog.

Arion looked at it warily. "This isn't a real frog, is it? Just maybe acts like one?" she asked.

"Correct."

Arion opened it, then jumped as a chocolate frog jumped out of the package. Dumbledore laughed as she watched, wide-eyed, the frog's journey around the office. It stop in front of her and let out a loud "ribbit" before becoming still.

Arion picked up the frog, looked it over, and ate it. She then looked at the card to see Dumbledore staring back at her.

"I got you," Arion said, giggling a bit. Looking on the back at the accomplishments, she made notes on what was accomplished. "There are uses for different types of animal blood?"

"Yes, some can be used in deadly poisons while others in their pure states can be used to keep you from death. One type of candy I will never have in here are Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans," Dumbledore commented.

"Why not? Are they serious about being every flavor?" Arion asked, wanting to know anything she could. 'Darn Hermione, rubbing off on me,' she thought.

"They are serious about being every flavor. I came across a vomit flavored one in my youth, so I've stayed pretty far away from them," Dumbledore said.

Arion giggled. She looked around for a clock, but found a weird device with what looked like the phases of the moon. "Um, Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes, Arion?"

"What time did Mr. Fudge say he was coming? And what time is it?" Arion asked.

Dumbledore looked at the weird clock before answering, "It's about 7 o'clock, and Cornelius said he would be coming here at about quarter after. He said there were a few things he would have to do but the testimony would be taken here in front of the teachers for witness and your relatives."

Arion paled. "Is one of the things he's doing getting my dad?" she asked.

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "Yes, Cornelius is getting Sirius from Azkaban. I was thought to be a neutral party, so I was free to talk to you. The teachers are down in the Great Hall with Mr. Lupin and Miss Tonks. Professor McGonagall has your things and will give them to you after the testimony."

Arion gulped, nodded, and stayed quiet. She was nervous about having to say what she remembered from that day, as well as seeing her father again. And in front of all those people? She could feel the appearance she had been holding go back to her completely neutral look, her hair growing a little longer and her eye shape going a bit rounder instead of being the smaller size she usually had. Her natural eyes were more child-like, innocent.

Arion heard Dumbledore ask if this was her natural look and she nodded. Then there was silence again. Except, there was a peaceful trilling sound that calmed her down enough for her to talk.

"What is that sound?" Arion asked, hoping to maybe get a recording of that for before tests.

Dumbledore smiled. "That's Fawkes. He's my pheonix." As soon as he finished saying that, a giant bird flew down and landed on Dumbledore's shoulder. There were tons of red, orange, and golden colored feathers on him.

"Were did you get him?" she asked.

"He came to me right before I defeated Grindelwald. Fawkes was very important to that defeat."

Arion thought a little bit about the testimony, which could almost be called a trial. "Is there anything else I should know before we go?"

"They may ask for Veriterserum to be used," Dumbledore said honestly.

"Veriterserum?"

"It's a truth potion. It's used for cases of high importance to make sure the person testifying is telling the truth."

Before either of them could say something, the fireplace came to life and two people came out. One was the minister while the other was…

"Dad," Arion said quietly.

**A/N: Woot! I actually have a chapter 4 on something. I'm happy about that! Anyways, the next chapter should be coming next weekend, so until then, please read and review!**


	5. Author's Note

I'm sooooo sorry. I won't be able to update like I wanted to. I…uh…crashed my hard-drive…but, I will try to update tomorrow and I'll update with two chapters since I won't be able to put them up at home. So, I will keep writing and try to update once a week or two.

Jessi


	6. Trial Begins

Before either of them could say something, the fireplace came to life and two people came out. One was the minister while the other was…

"_Dad," Arion said quietly._

**_Chapter 5: Trials Begin_**

Sirius Black looked to be in tough shape. His hair, which Arion remembered to be perfectly straight and chin length, was so knot filled it looked curly. The stormy gray eyes that had been full of life were dimmed down a bit, but had not completely lost the traces of the teenage prankster he had been. His clothes were ragged, like he had been wearing them for a couple years and seemed to be for a person ten pounds heavier then he was.

Sirius' eyes caught Arion's and he mouthed 'Arion?' She nodded and a big smile went on his face. Arion didn't feel like smiling, but she gave him a little one in return.

"So, this is the little Black girl," Fudge said.

"My name is Arion," Arion said, very slightly rolling her eyes.

Dumbledore shook his head in amusement as Fudge said, "Right, right. Well, are we ready?"

"Is there anyone who is going to take down the testimony?" Dumbledore asked.

"I thought you could do that," Fudge said.

Dumbledore agreed and the four of them walked down to the Great Hall. Sirius was forced to walk in front of Dumbledore and Fudge while Arion walked behind the three of them. She was really nervous. "How many people are going to be there?" Arion asked, not referring to anyone in particular.

"The four Heads of Houses, Mr. Lupin, Miss Tonks, and Hagrid," Dumbledore answered.

"Mrs. Malfoy has also asked to be here as well," Fudge informed everyone.

Sirius spoke for the first time after hearing this. "Narcissa is coming? I thought her husband wouldn't let her out of the house without him," he commented. The voice sounded the same as what Arion remembered from her dreams.

"Nothing from you, Black," Fudge told him, poking Sirius in the back with his wand.

"Is that wand extra pointy?" Sirius asked, being completely…serious.

Fudge poked him again while Arion was keeping from laughing out loud, probably slightly hysterical. What, with her father's freedom possibly resting on her testimony and said person not being serious, it was making her nervous. Even more nervous, anyway. Each step she took, her stomach felt like it was being filled with more and more lead.

They finally reached the Great Hall and Dumbledore opened the door with a flick of his wand. Arion looked in awe at the ceiling before following the other three in.

Coming into the room, Arion was able to see the other people in the hall clearly. There was McGonagall, watching her with a kind look in her eyes that didn't seem to be there too often in favor for a sterner look. That one teacher, Snape, who was looking at Sirius with a look of complete loathing. Though, the look seemed to move from him to a man with graying sandy hair to her. A young woman with bubblegum pink hair was watching the entire thing with an interested look in her eye. There were two other teachers there that she didn't know and one lady, though she looked similar to the boy she met while getting her robes. There was a table in the back of the room that held a group of stern looking witches and wizards. There also seemed to be a small table with twelve people. 'The jury,' Arion guessed. 'Fudge forgot to mention a few people.'

Arion looked for where she was supposed to sit and saw a chair in the middle of the room. The butterflies in her stomach felt like they were beating against her ribcage so hard she thought she was going to fall to the ground as she walked to the chair.

When Arion sat down, Fudge cleared his throat. "With the finding of Miss Black, we are now able to get a testimony. Since this was the last testimony we were looking for, we will be starting the trial for Sirius Black."

'Wait a second,' Arion was thinking. 'Does this mean that not only did daddy not get a trial, but also they put him in jail without him getting one? Isn't that illegal? Was I really the only testimony they were waiting for?' Her mind was spinning out of control.

"Mrs. Bones, if you would like to start the questioning?" Fudge asked an older lady with kind features.

She nodded, standing up. Dumbledore was sitting off to the side with a quill and parchment while Sirius was bound to a chair. Arion was really starting to feel sick.

"Miss Black, can you state your name and age for the record?" Mrs. Bones asked.

Arion opened her mouth to talk, but found it dry. She closed her mouth, swallowed a few times, then took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. When Mrs. Bones was about to repeat the question, Arion answered, "My name is Arion Andromeda Black and I'm 11 years old."

"Where is your place of residence?"

"I live in an orphanage in London where I've lived since, I've been told, November 1st ten years ago."

"How did you come to be at this orphanage?" Mrs. Bones asked gently, thinking some kind muggle had found Arion and brought her there.

"I don't know. One minute I was with my dad and the other I was in front of the orphanage before I blacked out."

Bones blinked a couple times, puzzled. "You were just there?"

"Yes."

"Mrs. Bones, to make sure she is telling the truth, may we use Veritiserum?" a toad-looking woman asked.

Bones looked around to see what people thought of this. Some people muttered about it being wrong to use it on a minor, but generally people seemed to agree. Only a handful of people, Sirius being one of them, looked uncomfortable at the thought of the Truth Potion being used in the questioning. "It shall be allowed," Bones said, slightly regretfully.

A wizard who had been guarding Sirius came up to Arion and handed her a vial. She looked over at Dumbledore, who looked unhappy even though he suspected this would happen. He gave Arion a nod and she swallowed the clear liquid.

Arion's POV 

Someone caught me as I fell over sideways. I think the potion was taking affect, but seeing as I knew about the wizarding world for a total of maybe ten hours, I couldn't be sure. I could feel my powers coming into affect, trying to give me mental images, but the potion seemed to block them. The memories floated outside my conciousness, waiting for when the potion lost its affect. I was laid out on a bench that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Arion, how clearly do you remember the events of November 1, 1981?" I heard, but could not place whom the voice belonged to.

"Very clearly." I answered, not bothering to hide it, knowing by instinct that I would be unable to lie. 'That's why it's called a Truth Potion, duh,' I thought.

"You do know that it's quite unlikely for you to remember, being it was ten years ago and you being a little over one. How do you remember so clearly what happened?" the voice asked gently.

"I know. I looked up why I might be able to remember so clearly. There are two main reasons. One is that it was obviously a traumatic event, in which case no matter what the age it would be unlikely to forget it completely as it would just be lingering under my subconscious. The other main reason is because I kept dreaming about it every other week for a few years, waking up screaming. When I was 8, the dreams came about once a month and that's how it's been since. I still wake up screaming," I answered, not able to stop at simple answers for some reason. 'Why can't they be simple answers? Is this common?" I though to myself.

I guess it wasn't common for such detailed answers. "Why is she answering in complete detailed answers?" a male, somewhat familiar voice asked. (Fudge)

Someone, another male who it felt like had some power, answered, "I think I know why. I wouldn't worry about it." (Dumbledore)

There was a pause. "Let's continue with the questioning, shall we?" the first voice suggested.

"All right. Arion, do you remember anything from October 31, 1989?" the voice that had been questioning asked.

"I remember a little bit." 'I know Hagrid and daddy met at the house that I can assume my godparents lived, but that was it.'

"What do you remember?"

"I remember daddy had been with me that evening. After a while, he got a weird feeling or something because he went completely still as if he had been frozen. Daddy got a weird look on his face before saying something about not feeling right and that he thought something happened to Wormtail or Prongs. I don't know what he was talking about, but he picked me up and dropped me off at someone's house. That's all I remember with daddy in it that I was in until he came back while I was sleeping to pick me up. Something didn't feel right, so I woke up and he was extremely pale looking. I think there's something else, but I'm not sure if it's real or not." I was shocked by the answer. 'How do I remember that now? Did the Truth Potion unlock a memory I had somehow sealed away?' I definitely knew that before this trial and before taking that potion, I could not remember that. Maybe the other memory from the dream drove it deep into the back of my mind.

"What is it that you are not sure about?"

"I see my daddy and Hagrid at a wrecked house that I can only assume Lily and James lived in. Daddy wanted to take Harry to come and live with us, but Hagrid said he was on Dumbledore's orders to bring Harry to him and to talk to Dumbledore later." At least this memory I knew from the dream.

There was a pause as a loud, booming voice cried out, "That did happen!"

"Was that from the dream?"

"Yes." Finally, I get to answer a simple question with a simple answer.

"What do you remember next?"

I told the questioning voice what happened the next day when daddy confronted Peter. "…Daddy started saying a few letters real quickly. There was a burning in my left shoulder that made me cry out. There was a weird pull in my stomach and I was suddenly in front of a building. That's where I grew up. The last thing I remember was someone picking me up as I clawed at my shoulder, screaming before everything goes black." I said, feeling the strange haze lift as I finished. All of those memories that had been held back attacked my senses, causing me to close my eyes as they came to a stop and I could open them again.

I was now completely in control of my body, so I sat up slightly. All around, people were staring at me in confusion and shock.

End POV 

Everyone was shocked at what this little 11 year old girl could remember and what was said. There was also the fact that the Veritiserum had a different effect on Arion then any other person. And, no one knew what to say about the burning in her shoulder, but the affect she had described beforehand had sounded a lot like a portkey.

"Is the Veritiserum still in affect, Arion?" Bones asked.

Arion shook her head, trying to shake off the after images of the memories and the affects of the potion. Everyone was silent for a couple minutes until a voice said, "She's lying."

Everyone looked at the toad-woman. "Why do you say that, Delores?" Bones asked.

"Because how is it possible that a girl could remember something from when she was one? I think Black confounded her," Umbridge said.

"How could he have when Sirius hasn't had a wand and as you heard her say, she vanished after the explosion started, so it couldn't have been after the explosion, Miss Umbridge." Umbridge snorted, barely supressing her rage. "Arion, do you mind showing us your shoulder?" Bones asked.

Arion shook her head and pulled the sleeve of her shirt to reveal a star shaped scar. One of the other Aurors who had been standing guard over Sirius was covered in scars. He started before looking at her closely.

"May I ask Black a couple of questions when he goes for questioning?" he asked.

"Yes, you may Alastar. Actually, Arion, you can go sit next to Miss Tonks, if you will, and we will start questioning Black," Bones said, dismissing Arion.

Arion blinked a couple of times before the girl with the pink hair waved her hand a little. Arion hopped off the bench and went to sit on a chair that appeared next to her.

"Hello, Arion. I'm your cousin, Tonks," Tonks introduced herself.

Arion's face lit up in recognition. "You're Nymphadora! Professor Dumbledore told me a little about you," Arion said excitedly.

Tonks sighed. "Yes, but I don't like my first name. I prefer going by my last name."

Arion looked around and saw the man with sandy hair looking at her. "Nym, who is that?" she asked, indicating the man.

Tonks shook her head, knowing not to argue over the nickname. After all, that's what Sirius called her when he was free. "That's Remus Lupin. He was one of your father's best friends. He was the one to catch you when you fell," Tonks answered.

Arion paled. 'He's probably figured out something wasn't right when he touched me…' she thought. 'Oh, well, can't do anything about that now.' Arion gave him a small smile and watched as her dad was seated on the bench for the start of his testimony.

Updated May 28, 2007


	7. Guilty as Charged?

_Chapter 6: Guilty as Charged?_

Sirius was seated on the bench where iron cuffs went around his wrists to keep him from getting up and attacking people. 'At least the bench is pretty comfortable,' Sirius thought. 'No wonder Ari looked close to falling asleep after the Veritiserum wore off.'

"Sirius Black, you have been accused of being a Death Eater and of being the one to betray the Potter's, leading up to the attack on Godric's Hollow, resulting in their death. You are also accused of murdering Peter Pettigrew and 12 muggles. How do you plead?" Madam Bones asked.

"Not guilty," Sirius answered immediately.

No one looked surprised at his declaration. Who would admit to being guilty for something like that?

"Do you have proof of your innocence?" Umbridge asked in her high-pitched voice.

"Besides the fact that if anyone lifted the shirtsleeve of my left arm up they wouldn't find a Dark Mark, no, I have no proof right now," Sirius answered. "It's kind of hard to get evidence in Azkaban."

Umbridge gave an unladylike snort. Arion tried to hold back laughter at that statement. After all, he had a very good point.

"Can someone administer the Veritiserum?" Fudge asked. The man who had given the Veritiserum to Arion gave it to Sirius and he lay back on the bench.

Arion's POV 

I watched as daddy completely relaxed under the power of that weird potion. I briefly wondered if the potion had the same affect on him as if did on me.

"State your name and age for the records," Madam Bones said.

"Sirius Alphard Black. I'm 31." Dad answered. I was surprised to hear this. Most of the adults I had been around that had kids my age were older then that. Hermione's parents were about 35.

"Are the events that your daughter, Arion, said true to the extent of your knowledge?" Madam Bones asked. Even though it was a legitimate question, it made me slightly angry. How could it not be true seeing as how I was under that truth potion?

"Yes, they are," he answered again.

"Can you fill in any gaps in what she said?" Madam Bones asked. My ears picked up at this. I wanted to know what completely went on that night.

"Around 8 o'clock on Halloween night I felt that something wasn't right, that something was going to happen. I brought Ari to Andromeda's house to go and make sure things were all right. I went to go and check on Wormtail…"

"Who is Wormtail?" Fudge interrupted. I wanted to know as well.

"Wormtail was Peter's nickname in school."

"What are other nicknames you used and why did you have them?" Madam Bones asked.

"I was Padfoot, James was Prongs, Remus was Moony, Adria was Mercury, and Lily Tigerlily. Marlene almost had a nickname, but she was murdered before we could come up with one. All of us except for Moony and Lily were Animagus," Sirius answered.

Everyone in the room except for Remus blinked. He actually looked a little scared. I knew why as I had started looking through his memories from the past couple of years. I knew he was a werewolf.

"So, you were all illegal Animagi?" Fudge asked.

"Except for those two."

"Why did you become Animagi?" Madam Bones asked while Fudge began fuming. I wanted to know what an Animagi was.

"I can't answer that as I took an Unbreakable Vow with my friend not to reveal the reason," Sirius answered.

"I can answer that," Remus said, quietly. Everyone looked at him. "I'm a werewolf."

Everyone who didn't know that except for Tonks started to freak out. The two of us blinked, looked at each other, and shook our heads. So what if he was? Remus wasn't going to all of the sudden start attacking us.

"QUIET!" Dumbledore yelled. Everyone was silent. Daddy actually looked really calm, but I could tell he was still under the truth potion. "We are in the middle of a questioning. Someone keep on asking Sirius questions."

"Right. So, what were the forms you could take?" Madam Bones asked. 'Forms?' I thought. 'Maybe it has something to do with turning into animals.

"I was a dog, James a stag, Adria a cheetah, Marlene a panther, and Peter was a rat. Hint some of the nicknames," Daddy answered. 'I wonder what form I would take?'

"So, you went to go check in on Peter. Why did you do that?" Madam Bones asked.

Before Sirius could answer, Umbridge said, "So he could kill him, obviously."

"Miss Umbridge, if you cannot keep control of yourself during the questioning, please remove yourself from the room," Madam Bones demanded. Umbridge got a really sour look on her face and stayed put. 'Too bad she couldn't leave. I don't like her. Period.' I was getting some weird vibes from her, especially as she kept on giving Remus a look between disgust and fear.

"I went to check on Peter because he was the Secret-Keeper for Lily and James," Daddy answered the question.

While everyone was going up in an uproar again, I was confused. 'Secret-Keeper? What's that? I have huge gaps in information here.'

"Wait! What's a Secret-Keeper? And, why is there so much arguing over this?" I asked, waiting for someone to answer. It was Remus who answered for me.

"When a person goes under a charm called a Fidelius Charm, they chose a person to hide the secret of their location in. Anybody could go looking for the person under the charm and no one could find him or her unless the Secret-Keeper gave away the information. We believed your father to be the Secret-Keeper for Lily and James. Obviously we were wrong," Remus explained to me.

"Thanks. Finally, I get something answered," I said to him. Remus smiled at me and looked back at Sirius. Everyone had finally calmed down.

"Were you not the Secret-Keeper for the Potter's?" Dumbledore asked, as everyone else seemed so surprised that they couldn't ask the question.

"No. James asked me, but I convinced them to change to Peter at the last minute since everyone would think it was me since I was their closest friends and powerful. Never thought the Death Eaters would use someone like Peter," Daddy said, sounding upset at mistaking that piece of information.

"After going to check on Peter, what happened?" Madam Bones asked.

"I found his hiding place deserted. I thought it weird because there wasn't a sign of struggle. The bad feeling in my stomach intensified and I went straight to Godric's Hollow. That's where I met up with Hagrid. Ari told you the rest of it, up until the point when the confrontation between Wormtail and I came to a conclusion," Daddy concluded, answering in a way that showed he agreed with what I said about his confrontation.

"Ok, now, Moody, you wanted to ask Sirius a couple questions?" Madam Bones asked the man with a bunch of scars.

"Yes, I did, didn't I?" Moody said, looking up. He had been looking down during Sirius' testimony. His face was almost scary, except his one good eye showed he had a good spirit. That other eye, though, freaked me out.

Moody got up and walked over to Daddy. "While you were an Auror, wasn't there a top secret experiment? One that would be important for the war?"

"Yes, there was."

"What was the experiment? That was tied in with the Department of Magical Transportation, was it not?" Moody asked.

"Yes, the experiment did have to do with transportation. There were ten people who were randomly selected in the Auror and Transportation departments, including the people themselves and their families. They wanted to test and see if a person in danger would be able to use a portkey put under the skin and see what the side-affects would be. The people selected had an object put inside somewhere on the body where it wouldn't be noticeable. The portkeys were activated by code, mainly a series of letters and numbers. There was an additional spell to make it nearly impossible to find the person who got the portkey by modern day techniques. An older way of finding magical signatures had to be used. Only one portkey was ever activated since soon after the experiment started, the war ended," Daddy explained. I had an odd sense of forbidding come over me.

Dad took a deep breath before finishing his answer. "Arion was one of the ten people chosel. I had already lost Adria, so I wanted a way to make sure she would be safe. If you look at her locket, there is probably the un-traceable spell still on the locket. It was chosen to be in her left shoulder and I chose an orphanage for where she would go to, knowing they would take care of her if something happened. When I confronted Peter, he blew apart the street with a spell that killed anyone that did not have enough magical energy. I assumed that Arion would be killed, so I activated her portkey, thinking I would be able to go and get her, or tell someone in my trial if someone asked where she was."

Everyone was silent. You could hear a pin drop. Actually, it was creepy because it was silent since everyone was staring at me. I refused to look anyone in the eye. Or, the face, for that matter. I was busy digesting the information I had just found out.

"Ok, we are going to now have the jury go out and vote on the verdict. In the meantime, you can talk as long as no one talks to Black," Fudge said.

End of POV 

No one really talked about anything of importance. Arion and Tonks talked about the difference between schooling in the wizarding world and muggle world with Remus putting in his input every so often. Narcissa was completely silent, not really getting along with anyone or even caring about Sirius. Everyone else had his or her own conversations, looking over at Arion every once in a while. Moody was curious about the side-affects the portkey may have had on Arion. Sirius was twiddling his thumbs and staring up at the ceiling. No one noticed the weird beetle on the wall.

The jury came in. A man with balding red hair came in last and walked up to Fudge. "We have reached a verdict," he said.

"Alright, what's the verdict, Arthur?" Fudge asked.

Arthur Weasley opened up his mouth and…

A/N: Ok, here are the two chapters I promised. I still have to work on Chapter 7, but I should have it next week or so (I'll borrow my brother's laptop some more until we get my computer fixed...), so I will keep up with the writing. As for the chapter title, I had no idea what to call it. Also, I am sorry I left you all at a cliffhanger, but I felt that it was a good place to end and, as I said, I don't have the next chapter done. So, please review and give ideas, especially chapter names!

Updated Author's Note: Okay, someone was nice enough to give me a chapter name for this chapter, so kudos to 1Malone!

Updated May 28, 2007


	8. Freedom Sings

_Chapter 7: Freedom Sings_

"Not guilty," was the verdict.

Sirius Black leapt up off the chair with a "Whoop!" of joy, as did Arion. She ran around the table and tackled her dad. They fell down, laughing, as Arion ignored the memories that were coming to her again.

Not everyone was happy with the verdict. Narcissa gave a "humph" and left, shooting glares at her cousin. Snape stalked out of the room like a bat, grumbling about "that mutt." Fudge and Umbridge, though, looked like they were going to pop a blood vessel.

Everyone else had a smile on his or her face as the two Black's got up off the floor.

"Can we go now?" Arion asked, pleading. She had definitely had enough of "court".

"Not yet. As compensation for being unjustly imprisoned, we find that you should be rewarded 94,020 galleons. For becoming an illegal Animagi, however, we will subtract 1,000 galleons. Now, as soon as you find a place to live, Arion may join you," Bones answered.

Arion's face slightly fell. She didn't want to go back to the orphanage.

Nymphadora noticed this. "May I watch her while Sirius finds a place to live? That way, she can get used to our world," she suggested.

Bones seemed to be considering this. She looked back at Fudge and Umbridge. Fudge didn't look too happy while Umbridge was shaking her head 'no'. No one else seemed to have any problems with it. "That would be fine. Arion, you may go with your cousin. How long will it take you, Mr. Black, to get your things together?"

Sirius, whom at that time had picked himself and Arion off the floor, considered this for a moment. "I should be ready in about two days."

"Two days?" Fudge exclaimed.

"Yeah. It shouldn't take me long to cut my hair and get some clothes," Sirius stated.

"What about a place to live, Black?" Umbridge asked.

"Why pick a house for Arion and myself without her input? Speaking of Ari, when should I go to that orphanage?" Sirius asked.

"Probably after you have a haircut, dad. You look a bit creepy," Arion commented. "In the meantime, can we please go somewhere else?" she asked, giving her dad puppy-dog eyes.

Sirius chuckled. "You heard her, when can we leave?"

Bones smiled. "One moment. Just one more thing."

"What?" Sirius asked, slightly wary.

The door opened and Arthur Weasley was bringing in a plump witch with red hair.

"Wouldn't you want your hair cut?" Bones asked.

As the witch, who was introduced as Molly Weasley, started fussing over Sirius, Arion looked around. Almost everyone had left except Dumbledore, Nym, Remus, and Bones. Arion was looking around for Professor McGonagall to thank her for bringing her to Diagon Ally and Hogwarts.

Dumbledore noticed her looking around, which was easier to spot now that her eyes were her normal, large, size. "What are you looking for, our little Black girl?"

Sirius and Remus heard the name and started snickering as Arion turned around and glared at Dumbledore. "I'm looking for Professor McGonagall. And would you stop calling me that?" she said.

"Professor McGonagall went up to go get your school things," Dumbledore told her.

"Okay. Now, what about the name?" Arion asked.

"I think we should keep it. You need more nicknames," Sirius commented, almost done his haircut. "Also, your glares need more work. They don't even look remotely threatening."

Arion blinked at him before remembering that she had returned her eyes back to normal before the trial. Slapping her hand to her forehead, she said, "I can't believe I forgot."

"Forgot?" Remus said.

Arion looked at people's eyes in the room. Or, more accurately, their eye shape. She settled on her dad's shape, which seemed to be easy to glare from. She changed her eyes.

Molly had finished the haircut. Now, hair was straight and touched the top of his ears (NOT a bowl cut). "There, all done, dear," she said, then noticed he wasn't paying attention.

Sirius was just staring at his daughter's eyes. "Well, I guess now you might have a good glare…"

Nym clapped her hands. "Another metamorphmagus! Now I'm not alone!" she said happily.

Bones blinked, then looked at Dumbledore. "Why wasn't it mentioned that Arion was a metamorphmagus?" she asked accusingly.

"No one asked," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Not that you would have told them anyways, Albus," McGonagall said as she entered the room with Arion's trunk and kitten.

"Thank you, Professor," Arion said, taking Adria from McGonagall.

"It wasn't a problem," McGonagall said kindly.

Arion looked at her dad. "Now may we go?" she asked.

Sirius looked at Mrs. Bones, who nodded. "All right, squirt, let's go."

"Wait," Remus said, making Arion and Sirius turn around. "First of all, wouldn't you want something to change into?" he asked, referring to getting rid of the rags Sirius was wearing.

Sirius looked down at his clothes and let out a bark of laughter. "Yes, I suppose I really don't look presentable, do I?"

"People might think you really were a murderer," Arion said, agreeing.

"Second, can I come with you?" Remus asked.

Sirius looked to be considering this, but he was actually going to ask Remus to join them, but he beat him to it. "Well, I don't know. Maybe if you can let me borrow some clothes so not to allow the muggles…" he started to say.

"What are muggles?" Arion asked, interrupting Sirius.

Sirius gave her a look like a kid denied some candy, or Hermione when told she couldn't have a book, before saying, "Aw, Ari, you ruined my fun…"

Remus rolled his eyes like he was with more then one little kid. "Muggles are people who don't have magic," he answered. "And, yes, you can borrow some clothes, Padfoot."

"They might actually fit you now," Nym commented, remembering a time when Sirius tried to take some of Remus' clothes to be Remus for Halloween. They were too tight.

"Are you saying I'm too fat?" Sirius asked with dignity as they were leaving. Sirius was carrying Arion who was holding Adria while Remus was walking next to him with Nym next to him.

"Yes, yes I am," Nym said with a straight face before rolling her eyes and saying, "honestly, Sirius, how can you be fat while in prison?"

"Unless you stole other inmates' food…" Remus said.

Arion looked her dad in the eye. "That wouldn't surprise me," she said.

Remus and Nym laughed while Sirius put on an indignant look. "You think I would steal food from people who were going insane?" he asked Arion.

"Maybe…" Arion answered. "Hey!" she squeaked out as Sirius picked Adria up and handed her to Remus. Then, she really started squirming in Sirius' arms as he started tickling her.

"Ok, ok, please stop!" Arion gasped between her laughter.

Sirius stopped. "All right. First, to Remus' house. Then, to bail Arion from the orphanage."

"Yay!" Arion said, skipping out of Sirius' arms and dragging him away, Remus and Nym lagging behind laughing at the two.

Laughing and talking about little things, the four left Hogwarts to go to Hogsmeade, where they would apparate to Remus'.

A/N: Here's my newest update. Kind of one of those "blah" chapters where not much happens. I don't invision much happening next chapter, but I know Harry will be making another appearance. As will Hermione be making her first one. I have actually started the next chapter as well. I thank all the people who reviewed last time! I also actually have the next chapter for my Yu Yu Hakusho story done, as well, so I've been pretty productive. My brother also ordered me a new hard-drive, so I see some smooth sailing until I get a major writer's block or until January (finals...).


	9. Flashes of Black and Red

_Chapter 8: Flashes of Black and Red_

Arion was once again feeling the odd sensation of being squished in a small, spinning tube. When the sensation ended, she kept her eyes shut for a count of ten.

Sirius noticed this. "What's wrong, squirt?" he asked as she opened her eyes.

Arion shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. It's just that I feel sick after what was it? Apparating?"

"You'll probably get used to it. Side-apparation is worse then by yourself," Remus commented.

Nym looked around at the dreary surroundings. "This is where you live?" she asked.

"Not too many people want a werewolf for a neighbor," Remus commented lightly. Nym looked sheepish about forgetting about that.

"Are we done hanging out out here? I think these 'robes' are trying to combine into my skin," Sirius commented, trying to break up what could have been a tense situation.

"All right, come on in," Remus said, leading the way into the house.

The inside looked to belong to a very clean and organized individual, though some of the things looked older.

"Moony, since when have your things looked to be a bit older then ten years old?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Since I decided to play target practice with objects…" Remus trailed off.

"Oh? Who's head were you imagining?" Arion asked curiously. For an answer, she got three weird looks. "What? It's calming and usually works without too drastic of results."

Remus looked uncomfortable. "Let's say it was someone I was unhappy with. Now, let's grab some clothes for old Padfoot here," Remus answered the question, yet changed the subject at the same time.

"All right, Moony. What have you got? Anything that won't make me look like a professor?" Sirius asked.

Remus and Sirius went into the bedroom, Remus defending his clothes while Sirius was teasing him about them.

Nym turned to Arion. "So, who was it that you were seeing on a punching bag?"

Arion blushed. "Oh, uh…no one important…" she said, trying to control the rush of blood to her face.

Nym wasn't fooled for one second. "I don't think so. What happened?"

Arion sighed, knowing Nym was probably very creative with getting the information she wanted. "Well, there are very few ways to annoy me. The major one is bullying. This one specific boy was always bullying my best friend, Hermione. So, I made a punching bag and envisioned his face.

"Of course, I didn't know I was magic yet. Well, I knew something was weird, but never imagined I would be magic. The next day, I found out he had to stay home because he had a broken nose and a major headache," Arion explained.

"How do you know he didn't just run into a door or something?" Nym asked.

Now Arion was red. "Well, I had been punching 'his' nose on the bag. Then, when he came to school, his hair was the same color as yours, meaning he had gotten me angry," she finished to the laughter of three other people.

Sirius was now adopting a pair of Remus' jeans and a blue T-shirt that made his eyes appear to be an even stormier gray color.

"Well, that doesn't appear very much like a professor," Nym said.

"Nope. Just the right style. I can shop later," Sirius said.

"Now are we going to the orphanage?" Arion asked. "I don't think Professor McGonagall signed me out for a day and a night. It's almost 9:30."

"Good point. Though, I don't think everyone needs to come," Remus said.

"Nope, just me and the squirt," Sirius said.

Arion nodded her head. "Just one question. Do you have to call me squirt?" she asked.

"Yes," Sirius said, putting his hand on Arion's shoulder, preparing to apparate.

"See ya," Nym said. "I should go prepare my apartment."

"Yeah. Do you want to leave your kitten with Moony?" Sirius asked Arion.

Arion looked at Remus who nodded. "All right. Stay with Uncle Remus, Adri," Arion said to her kitten, which walked over to Remus and climbed up him.

"Looks like you have a new friend, Moony," Sirius said, laughing at the startled expression on Remus' face.

"Get out of here, Padfoot," Remus said.

"Gone," Sirius said before apparating.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"All right, Ari, how should we go about this?" Sirius asked her.

Arion looked at her dad weirdly. "How should I know? Does it look like I've done this before?"

"Good point. Let's wing it," Sirius said.

Arion and Sirius walked over to the orphanage to hopefully enter it for the last time.

Before entering, Arion stopped her dad. "Um…dad?"

"Yes," Sirius said, feeling a weird jolt at being called dad again, as he had once believed he would never hear that again.

"Can you make my trunk normal sized real quick? Also, what are you going to tell Miss Brooks?" Arion asked.

Sirius enlarged her trunk before answering question number 2. "I left an envelope here for you to receive after you turned 11. Or after you got the Hogwarts letter. I can't remember," he said.

Arion blinked. "And that will help us how?"

"Good point. I did say something about winging it, didn't I?" Sirius said.

Arion sighed and shook her head with a small smile on her face. "All right, but if something goes wrong, I am fully prepared to blame you."

"Deal," Sirius said before opening the door for Arion, then grabbing the trunk.

Two seconds of entering through the door, Arion was ambushed by someone with bright red hair. "Hey, Ari! I was wondering where you were. Did you have fun? Did you get anything interesting? Who's that?" the girl asked really quickly.

Arion smiled, then laughed a little when she noticed the bewildered look on Sirius' face. "Hey, Aly. I had fun, got some interesting things, and this is my dad," she answered in order.

"Oh. Hello Mr. Arion's daddy. What are you doing here?" Aly asked.

"I'm here to talk to the person in charge of the orphanage," Sirius replied, getting over hie shock at how fast Aly asked her questions.

"You mean Miss Brooks? She's over in the room down the hall to your left. Let's got play, Arion," Aly said, tugging at her hand.

Arion, meanwhile, had turned pale. "I can't believe I forgot about Aly. How could I? I've been like her big sister for years," she thought.

"I think I need to talk to Arion real quick. I'll send her after you," Sirius suggested.

"Ok, Mr. Arion's dad," Aly said, running to the game room.

After Aly left, Sirius looked at Arion. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Aly. She's nine years old. She adopted me as her older sister when she came here after her mom passed away when she was four. She was teased a little bit when she came because of her hair, so I always stood up for her. I can't believe I forgot to mention her," Arion said, smacking herself in the head.

"Really? She looked a lot like Lily. How upset would Aly feel if you were adopted?" Sirius asked, worried about the girl. After all, he knew how closely adopted siblings can be.

"Really upset. I want to go, but I don't want to leave her behind all by herself," Arion said, sadly.

Sirius looked to be thinking. "All right, why don't you go play with Aly while I go talk to…" Sirius said, momentarily forgetting the orphanage head's name.

"Miss Brooks," Arion supplied. "All right. Don't completely wing it."

Sirius gave her a cheeky grin and walked down the hall.

Arion sighed, shaking her head before following to the room where Aly had gone.

As soon as she entered the room, she was met with a solemn looking Aly. "Are you leaving me?" Aly asked.

"I would never leave you," Arion said, looking into the pretty, sparkling blue-green eyes of her "little sister". "You forget, we have these rings so that even if we get separated from each other, we'll never truly be apart," Arion said, referring to the two rings they bought each other for Christmas. Arion's had a blue star on a silver band while Aly's had a white lily on a gold band.

"Oh, and I forgot. While you were gone, Spencer tried to steal some of your things," Aly said.

"WHAT! Where is he?" Arion asked, furious.

"Well, I caught him at it and got angry at him…so your things started chasing him out of the room…and he hid under his bed and hasn't come out," Aly said.

'Wait, my things attacked him while I wasn't here…that must mean…Aly is magic, too!' Arion thought, excited by this piece of news. Too bad she couldn't tell her dad about it.

Aly led Arion to Arion's room. "So, what are you thinking about, Ari?" she asked.

"Well, you're right. My dad has come to take me back with him," Arion said. Aly looked upset. "But, I think that dad might be adopting you as well."

The eyes twinkled even more then before. "Really? I can go with you?"

"Maybe. I'm hoping so," Arion said.

"That would be so cool. We would be able to be around each other all the time and it would only be the three of us in the house…" Aly said, going on and spinning in circles in excitement.

Arion was thinking. Chances were that after Sirius got custody of her and Aly (which she was really really hoping for), he would try to get Harry Potter from wherever he was.

"Arion, where do you think we'll live? Huh?" Aly asked.

"Whoa, Speedy, slow down. Something might happen and he might not be able to gain custody of us," Arion said.

"Well, I overheard Miss Brooks tell one couple that had only wanted to adopt me that she was trying to get the both of us adopted by the same people since we were like sisters and it would break our hearts to be separated," Aly said. "So, chances are if he can gain custody of you, he can adopt me as well."

Arion shook her head with a smile. Aly always had so much energy. Everything that was just said was said about 3 times as fast as how Arion would say it. Another reason for her to be picked on a lot.

"Should we get our stuff together?" Arion asked Aly. A couple of years ago, the orphanage was running short on rooms and the staff was trying to get some of the kids to share rooms. Since Arion and Aly had been so close, they offered to share a room and neither had moved out yet even though there was plenty of room to do so.

"That's a good idea," Aly said. They started getting their things organized so it would be quick to put it in a bag, or Arion's trunk.

They had been working on their room for about 10 minutes when a knock came on the door. Arion looked at Aly before answering the door to show Miss Heart, the Head's assistant.

"Miss Brooks wants the two of you. There was a man in there," Miss Heart said.

"Ok. Let's go, Aly," Arion said.

The two of them grabbed hands and walked down the hall to Miss Brooks' office. After knocking and getting a response, Aly opened the door.

"Hello girls. How are you?" Miss Brooks asked.

"Fine. What's wrong?" Arion asked.

"Well, this man here says he's your father. Do you believe him?" Miss Brooks asked.

"Yes. I helped him to be here, as a matter of fact. Something was keeping him from coming to get me and when Professor McGonagall came to pick me up, she helped me help," Arion said. "If that makes any sort of sense."

"So you do have a place in that school. Are you comfortable around your dad so far?" Miss Brooks asked.

Arion looked over at her dad. "Yes, I have been comfortable. Is he going to be able to take me home with him? And, what about Aly?" she asked.

"I see no problems with you going with your father. He has your birth certificate and has shown proof that he is your dad. Alyssa, you can go if you want to. Mr. Black has expressed that if you would like to stay with Arion, he would love for you to come as well," Miss Brooks said.

Aly looked like she was going to shoot out of her chair and hug him. "I would love to come! I really can?" she said excitedly.

"Yes, you can both come home with me," Sirius said. Aly and Arion ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"Wonderful. Well, do you think the two of you could pack tonight? If you can, I can give Mr. Black the paperwork and you could go home with him tonight," Miss Brooks told them.

Arion and Aly looked shocked. "Yeah, we're actually almost packed. Do you want to get rid of us that quickly?" Arion asked.

Miss Brooks chuckled a little. "Well, with the two of you gone, things should be pretty peaceful, what with no more hair going weird colors and interesting pranks happening," she answered, watching the two girls blush.

"We'll just go get our stuff," Aly said, grabbing Arion's hand to steer her towards their room. When they reached the room and shut the door, Aly threw herself at Arion. "We're going to a home! With your dad!"

"Technically speaking, now he's your dad, too."

"True. Are you done packing?" Aly asked Arion with surprise.

"Yes, I am," Arion answered.

"What about the bat? And your soccer ball?" Aly asked.

"Oh, yeah. I should go get them really quick. Be right back, just shove things in my trunk if you can't fit in one of your bags," Arion said, rushing out of the room. She ran to where the outdoor stuff was kept and grabbed her soccer ball, bat, their jackets, and Aly's shoes.

Going back to their room, Arion found Aly standing there, looking into the trunk with a look of disbelief and shock on her face. "What's wrong?" Arion asked.

"What are these books?" Aly asked, indicating Arion's new spellbooks.

'Whoops! Haven't told her about that yet…' Arion thought. "Sorry. I haven't told you yet and explanations will have to wait a little while. Well, complete ones, anyways. I will tell you this and you're going to have to believe me for a while on my word."

"Alright. What's going on?" Aly asked, almost with desperation in her voice.

"To make a long story short, I'm a witch. And, I think you might be one as well. Wait, I have one way I can prove it to you," Arion said, seeing the look of complete disbelief on Aly's face.

"How?" Aly asked.

"Watch," Arion said, shutting her eyes for a moment. After concentrating, her hair was the exact red color of Aly's hair and the same shade of blue-green eyes were revealed when she opened her eyes.

Aly looked at her in shock for a moment before going, "That is so cool. I wish I could do something like that…"

"I think you might be able to do something similar, but I have to ask dad," Arion said.

"Really? Why do you think that?" Aly asked.

"Because earlier you said you made stuff attack Spencer and it couldn't have been me because I wasn't here," Arion pointed out. Aly let out a large yawn, causing Arion to say, "Come on, let's finish packing so we can go."

"It's going to be weird not being here anymore," Aly said.

"True, but think. Now we'll have our own rooms and our own parent," Arion pointed out.

"And our own space to do things," Aly said, twirling around.

Arion laughed as she shoved Aly's last music book into her trunk. There was a knock on the door before Sirius came in.

"All ready?" he asked.

"Yes dad," Arion and Aly said, causing Sirius to really blink before he smiled.

"Well then, let's get out of here. Remus and Nymphadora are going to want to know how everything worked out. And, I know Arion is probably exhausted with the day she's had," Sirius said.

Arion just nodded as they left the room. "So, we never have to come back here, right?" she asked.

"Well, Julia has asked for me to bring you by every six months for the next two years to check in, but otherwise we are home free," Sirius said.

They nodded and the three left the orphanage. Before they got around the corner, Aly asked, "How are we getting wherever we're going?"

Sirius had completely forgotten that one of the two girls he now had with him had never heard of magic. Well, he thought that before Arion answered Aly.

"There's this magical way called apparating where you go from one place to another quickly," she explained.

Aly looked like she was going to burst. "Really? So I get to feel the magic this time instead of having it happen at odd moments or seeing you change your appearance?" she asked.

Sirius blinked before asking, "Arion, when did you explain to Aly what magic was?"

"When she accidentally found my spellbooks while we were packing. I had to explain," Arion answered.

"Well, I'm glad I'm not the one who had to explain it. Congratulations, Aly, you are a witch and are now going to be going into the magical world," Sirius said.

"Yipee! Can we go now?" Aly asked, excited.

"What is it with you two and asking when we can leave? Hold onto my hand tightly now," Sirius said, shrinking their luggage before gripping their hands and apparating back to Remus'.

A/N: This weekend was crazy. I have two more chapters written for me to update this week, a one-shot to go along with this chapter, and worked on another story. Don't ask where Aly came from. I was writing and 'BOOM!' she was there. I'll try to update tomorrow or Wednsday for the next chapter. The next chapter, though, is kind of depressing. Just to give you a heads up.

Updated May 28, 2007: I decided to change 'Alanna' to 'Alyssa' a while ago and started using it like that, but didn't change it here or in the one-shot. So, here you go. Now it's changed. And I want to go to bed…as it's 2:30 in the morning…


	10. Memory Nightmares

A/N: Sorry. I really meant to update last Wednsday, but the site wasn't working for me at all. Would have updated sooner then this as well, but I haven't been able to get to a computer. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter. Slight warning; I found it rather hard to write part of this, but I want people's opinions on this chapter.

_Chapter 9: Memory Nightmares_

Again, Arion had to wait a moment before opening her eyes. On Sirius' other side, Aly was having no problems whatsoever.

"That was fun! Can we do it again?" Aly asked Sirius.

Sirius gave a little bit of a laugh. This girl would do fine in the magical world! Sirius turned to make a comment to Arion, but found her with her hands on her head with her eyes shut.

"Arion, are you all right?" he asked.

Arion stayed in that position as she said, "Stop the world, I wanna get off."

Aly looked at her and said, "She'll be all right. She's just dizzy. I like spinning in circles, so I don't get dizzy as easily."

Arion was able to pick her head up, but her complexion almost had a greenish tinge to it. "I'll be fine if I can get a glass of water," she said.

"Ok, we're at Moony's place now, so let's go in," Sirius said. He knocked on the door and Nymphadora answered the door.

"Hey there, Sirius, Arion. Who's the extra passenger?" she asked.

"Some little munchkin that ran after us and wouldn't leave us be. Honestly, muggles…" Sirius started.

"What are muggles?" Aly asked.

Remus came from the next room in time to hear Sirius try to start a rant again, but have it interrupted again. By the same question.

"A muggle is a person who is unable to use magic," Remus answered, laughing.

Sirius shook his head. "Not only do I get interrupted again, but your answers are getting more and more professorish. What happened to you?" he asked in mock sadness.

"Lovely seeing you all again, but can I please have a glass of water before I get sick?" Arion asked, still looking green.

Remus looked at her and nodded. "Just put her on the couch, Padfoot, and I'll get some water," he said.

Sirius picked her up and moved Arion to sit on the couch. Aly followed and sat on Arion's other side while Nymphadora sat on one of the chairs across from it.

"So, who is the little munchkin?" Nym asked.

Sirius answered, "Her name is Aly and because they are like sisters, I couldn't leave one behind. So, I adopted Aly."

"I'm surprised they let you since you were just cleared of those charges," Remus said, handing Arion a glass of water. Which she drank slowly.

"I feel a little better. Now can we go to bed?" Arion asked.

"Actually, I have a couple of questions for you, Ari," Remus said.

Adri crept out from behind the corner and sat in Arion's lap, purring, before Arion said, "Go ahead and ask them."

"What happened today with the veriterserum?" he asked.

Now Sirius was interested in the question. "It was weird about how she only answered in specific detail, but I have a feeling you're talking about something else," Sirius stated.

"I am. When she started keeling over, I caught her and felt a huge shock. What was it?" Remus asked.

Arion sighed. She did not want to get into specifics tonight, especially after having to explain it once, but figured her dad at least needed to know. "It's weird. Whenever I touch someone I had a close bond with at some point after a long period of time from seeing them, I see the important flashes of their life. Of course, it takes me a while to organize them, especially seeing as how many people I've re-met today," Arion explained.

Sirius looked guilty, figuring it was because of the portkey. It was thought that people with the portkey in their shoulder would have some imbalance in their magic, which would have to come out in some other way. "Was there anything else?"

"Just be careful whenever you write a note and hand it to me. I might not be able to read what you wrote, but I can tell what was happening around you when it was written, seeing as how I can see what happened when it was written," Arion added.

Aly, who had been starring at Nym's hair, asked, "How does your hair stay like that? Is it magic?"

Nym, who had been paying attention to Arion's story, looked at the redhead. "Sort of. I'm something called a metamorphmagus and can change my appearance at will. Watch," she said, changing her nose to become smaller and changing her hair. In moments, it looked like there were two Remus' in the room.

"Neat! Can I do that?" Aly asked. "I know Arion can because she changed her hair and eyes, but can people learn to become one?"

"I'm afraid not, munchkin. Metamorphmagi are born, not made. But, there are potions and spells to allow you to change your appearance," Nym told Aly. "And, I think we should be going back to my apartment since the girls are staying at my apartment for a couple days and would probably like to sleep in beds."

"Why? I'm not tired. I could stay awake for a couple more hours," Aly said.

"Yes, you can, but Arion is already out for the count," Nym said, bringing everyone's attention to her.

Arion was, in fact, asleep. She was leaning on Sirius' arm with Adria sleeping on her lap, curled in a ball. She was muttering in her sleep, but no one could tell what she was saying.

"Well, we should bring them, then. Where do you live?" Sirius asked, shifting Arion and the cat so they were in his lap and he could apparate them.

"I live at 42 Applegate Road in London. It's an apartment complex, but you have to apparate outside of the complex," Nym answered, offering her hand to Aly to take, which she did.

"All right. I'll be crashing here with you, Moony," Sirius said, apparating to the complex.

"Bye, Remus," Nym said, apparating with Aly.

When they landed at the complex, Nym brought them up three flights of stairs to where her apartment lay. Inside was a warm looking room, decked out in Gryffindor colors.

"I guess I don't have to ask where you were put, do I?" Sirius asked, still carrying a sleeping Arion. Adria jumped off of her and walked around the room.

"Yes, I was put in Gryffindor. Go to the first room to you left and that's the guestroom. You can put her in there," Nym directed.

Sirius looked at a bit of a loss, though. "What about pj's?" he asked.

"Ari doesn't always wear pj's. When she thinks of it, she'll put some on but otherwise, she feels more comfortable sleeping in her jeans," Aly answered.

Sirius nodded, think that was a little strange, and set Arion down on the bed. As he turned to leave, he could hear her muttering again. "Aly, can you tell what she's saying?" he asked.

Aly came into the room. "She seems to be saying something about someone named Harry. I don't know what exactly, but it doesn't sound like something bright and happy," she answered.

Sirius restored the trunks and bags to their normal size before exiting the room with Aly trailing behind. "You know, I never introduced you to. Aly, this is Nymphadora. Nym, this is Alyssa," he introduced, a bit late.

"Hello," they both said.

"Now, I have a couple things I want to talk about and I wish Arion was awake, but I think sleeping is her way of sorting through all of the memories she gets, right Aly?" Sirius said.

"Right. I never knew exactly why she always fell asleep faster on days when school started, but that would make sense," Aly said, knowing to be serious at the moment.

"I'd have to ask her or McGonagall, but I think Arion met Harry today at Diagon Ally. And if his Aunt and Uncle have raised Harry I think they have, he will not have had a happy life. Now, one of the things I want to talk to Dumbledore about is getting custody of Harry," Sirius said.

Nym looked a little surprised while Aly looked confused. "Who's Harry?" she asked.

"I forgot you didn't know. Harry is my best friend's son. They were killed by a man who was against a certain group of people in the wizarding community, known as muggle-borns. I won't get into the specifics this late at night, but Harry's father and his parents pretty much adopted me when I was sixteen and ran away from my parents," Sirius said.

"That's why you adopted me as well as Arion," Aly said, solving that puzzle.

"Right. Plus, you look a lot like someone I used to know, so I was thinking of trying to find out who your parents were," Sirius said.

Aly looked a little unhappy about that. "Will you make me go with them?" she asked.

"No, I wouldn't do that. Why don't you go to sleep and I'll see you two in the morning. Night, Aly," Sirius said.

"Night…daddy, Nymphadora," Aly said, running over to Sirius and giving him a hug before doing the same to Nym and then going to her room.

Nym looked over at Sirius who had a smile on his face. "You really missed that sort of thing, didn't you," she said.

"Probably one of the things I missed the most in Azkaban. Well, I'm going to go back to Remus'. Come over if there is a problem," Sirius said. "Good night."

"Good night, Sirius," Nym said, watching as he walked out of the apartment.

**Arion's Dream (POV)**

'Why is it so dark?' I asked myself. 'I've never had a dream where nothing happened.'

All of the sudden, there was a loud pounding on the door. I think I jumped about 10 feet. "Harry, wake up!" some woman yelled from outside the door.

'So, I'm going through Harry's memories tonight. Joy,' I thought. A light was turned on and I got a look at my surroundings.

'WHAT is he doing in a CUPBOARD!' I yelled, but no one could hear me. Harry looked to be used to these surroundings. Looking at him, he looked to be about five.

Harry exited the cupboard in too large of clothes. They looked to be two times as big as he was. Harry just walked into the kitchen where a family of three was sitting around.

"Don't burn anything. We want everything to be special for Dudley's first day of school," the woman said.

Dudley looked about the size of a six-year-old, but that was mainly because of the fat. 'Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon don't even acknowledge that today is my first day as well,' I heard in my head. That must be Harry and what he was thinking.

Harry was cooking the breakfast. 'What person makes a five year old cook breakfast?' I asked myself. In my head were all of the ingredients needed to make the breakfast and try not to burn it or ruin it, which I knew was from Harry thinking.

Dudley, who was bored having his parents talking around him, came up behind Harry and yelled "Boo!" in his ear, obviously making him jump.

Harry knocked over the eggs and milk he had on the counter that he was just about to put on. Then, his hand landed on the hot frying pan, which he had melted butter on so the eggs wouldn't stick as he was trying to get his balance on the chair pulled up to the counter.

There was a big mess on the floor. 'Uh oh, now I'm in trouble,' Harry thought. Watching his Aunt and Uncle's expressions, I was scared for him.

"Now you've done it, boy. We've been nice enough to lend you space in our house and clothes to wear and this is what you do. In your cupboard," Vernon said.

'Nice enough to lend him space? Not only is he your nephew, but his parents are dead. It's not like he can go to too many places at the moment. And, what about food?' I thought, enraged. 'It was their son's fault in the first place.'

"But, today's the first day of school. Don't I have to go?" Harry asked, smally.

"GET IN YOUR CUPBOARD! AND you're not coming out for four days!" Vernon yelled.

'WHAT! You're tub of a son doesn't get any punishment while Harry is restricted to where he can even go? I am so going to come out of here and teach you a thing or two.' Words can't even explain how angry I was.

I followed Harry into the cupboard where the door was locked. Once his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin were gone, I heard him singing to himself.

"Hush, hush, my little one,

I'm here for you.

Always here for you, even when I seem gone.

Never forget that I love you" he sang, over and over to himself as well as rocking and crying.

I thought I was going to cry. The scene shifted again, and I saw flashes of when he got in trouble for defending himself against Dudley's attacks, apparently climbing the school building (must have been his magic kicking in), turning the teacher's hair blue, and the events of Dudley's birthday and Harry's birthday.

I was appalled at what was happening. Then I saw him meeting me and the scene shifted to someone else's memories.

These showed a man in his twenties with already graying hair blowing apart objects. 'Must be Uncle Remus,' I thought.

"Sirius! How could you do that to them! Lily, James, and Peter all gone and no one will even tell me where Harry is! And no one can even find Arion! What did you do?! I can't believe it!!!!" he yelled, crying.

Looking around, I could see dozens of pictures of people. The marauder's, Lily, probably his parents, and two babies. 'That's me and Harry,' I thought with a shock. Looking outside, I thought it was middle to late fall. 'So, probably a couple days after our meeting with Peter,' I guessed.

I watched as Remus blew apart all of his furniture, then repaired it, sobbing. Eventually, he just collapsed, not having the energy to move to somewhere comfortable.

I saw hundreds of his transformations, painful and unfriendly as he scratched and bit himself. I saw the moments when he considered taking his own life, only to stop as he looked at the picture of me and Harry to say, "I have to stay alive to help them when I can see them."

I was in tears by this point. A reason I could never stand bullying people just because they're quiet and can't defend himself. I watched as he despaired every time that Umbridge woman did something to make it harder for werewolves to get a job. Then it got even darker.

I knew who it was this time. I was watching what my dad had to go through. I heard people screaming for their mom's, screaming for a lost friend. I watched as my dad paced and seemed to mutter in his sleep. "Arion…orphanage…Adria, I'm sorry," was what he muttered along with, "I'm sorry, Lily, James. I…couldn't help you…"

It was horrible to watch the transformation in dad. I couldn't take anymore and I just screamed. Screamed and screamed to wake up.

Updated May 28, 2007: I realized not only did I have to fix Alyssa's name, but I had to fix the number. I put '6' instead of '9'. Oops!


	11. Waking Up to Bad Articles

_Chapter 10: Waking Up to Bad Articles_

Aly jolted awake. There was someone screaming very loudly nearby. Looking around, she saw Arion screaming and moving around like she was trying to get away from something without falling off the bed.

"Ari! Arion, wake up, wake up, it's only a nightmare. Come on, wake up!" Aly cried, gently shaking her. She was jolted across the room and landed against the wall with a thud.

Nym ran into the room. "Aly, Arion, is everything all right in here?" she asked.

Aly stood up, massaging her head. "No, I can't wake her up and she won't stop screaming!" she yelled above the noise.

Nym looked at Arion and ran over to her. "Arion, Arion sweetie, wake up," she said, lightly shaking her. She let go as a huge jolt went through her from where she touched Arion. "Watch her. If she gets worse…take my wand and start doing magic with it. That will alert someone to come over here," Nym said. "I'm going to go get Sirius."

"Ok," Aly said, worried.

Nym ran out of her apartment as fast as she could. Running down the stairs, she was getting ready to apparate before she even left the building.

Not sparing a minute, she burst into Remus' house the minute she got outside his door. "Sirius, Remus, wake up! Something is wrong with Arion!" she yelled.

The affect was instantaneous. Immediately, Remus and Sirius were in the living room. "What's happening?" Sirius asked.

"She's screaming and we can't wake her up," Nym said.

Sirius was out the door and gone by the time Nym and Remus got out there. Nym grabbed Remus' hand since he didn't know where her house was and she thought it would be simpler to just apparate the both of them there. When they got to the apartment, they ran up the stairs.

Coming into Nym's apartment, there wasn't anymore screaming. Instead, there were loud sobs coming from the guestroom.

"Is everything all right in there?" Nym asked.

"They're ok. You guys can come in," Sirius said.

Coming into the room, they found Arion wrapped up in Sirius' arms, sobbing into his shoulder as Aly ran her fingers through her hair. When Remus entered the room, Arion looked up and said, "Sorry, I am so sorry."

"What happened?" Remus asked, bewildered.

"We think Arion sorts through her memories in her dreams. She re-met Harry, you, and me today," Sirius said as a way of explanation.

"Oh. Wait, does that mean…" Remus said, putting things together.

"She saw what's happened to us in the past decade. And this was the result," Sirius said, gently rocking the terrified girl.

"Why couldn't we wake her up? Why could you?" Nym asked.

"I think her powers were fading or something, cause when I tried to wake her up, I went flying into the wall. When you shook her, you were just shocked. When daddy came and shook her, she woke up and latched onto him," Aly said.

"Are you all right, Aly?" Sirius asked, not knowing she was thrown into the wall.

"I'm fine. Might have a bump on my head, but no biggie," she said.

Arion was starting to calm down. Sirius looked at her. "Are you ok now?" he asked.

She smiled weakly at him. "I've been better. When can we go get Harry?" she asked.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Because he hasn't had the best of lives," Arion said, shivering as she remembered some of the things that happened.

"I have to get somewhere to live first. It's about six o'clock, should we all just get ready for the day?" Sirius asked.

"I know I won't be going back to sleep," Arion said.

"Ditto," Aly said.

"Then I'll go make breakfast," Nym said.

"Wait," Sirius said as Nym was walking out of the room. She turned around and tripped over a bag in the room.

"What?" she asked.

"If I remember your mom as well as I do, she was a horrible cook. Add to your clumsiness, I'm not sure if I want you to make breakfast," Sirius said.

Arion had to laugh at the indignant look on Nym's face. "I can cook perfectly well," Nym said.

"Why don't I come help you," Remus suggested.

"Fine," Nym said, still unhappy about the comment Sirius made on her possible cooking talents.

After they left, Sirius looked at his two daughters. "Will you be all right to get dressed and ready now?" he asked.

"Yes," they answered together.

"Then I'll leave you to it," Sirius said, giving them each a kiss on the forehead and leaving so they could get dressed.

Arion opened her trunk and grabbed a clean pair of jeans and a pretty blue shirt with a sparkling star on the front. Aly grabbed a jean skirt, some knee high socks, and a white T-shirt with "Elf-girl" written on the front. By the time Arion and Aly left the room, Arion's shaking had been reduced to having a shudder every so often.

Once they were sitting at the kitchen table, they had to laugh. Nym was sitting there with an unhappy look on her face while Sirius had a grin.

"I was doing just fine with those eggs," Nym said.

"Sure, if you like them to have a bit of a crunch to them, the eggs were going to come out perfectly fine," Sirius said.

Remus was chuckling while finishing the eggs and toast. "Maybe you should stick to making toast," he said.

Nym sighed and shook her head. "It's no use. Sirius was right. I cook about as well as my mom did," she said. "Every time I make toast, I burn it."

Arion shook her head in amusement. "Is there any orange juice to go with it?" she asked.

"Maybe. Let me look," Nym said, going to the fridge. Inside, there was orange juice.

"Success! Can we have some?" Aly asked.

"Please?" Arion finished.

"Sure, let me grab two glasses," Nym said, going over to the cupboard. Grabbing two glasses, she made her way over to them and gave them the glasses, but not before tripping over her feet and knocking into the table. "Oops," she said.

"At least you didn't break or spill anything this time," Sirius said cheerfully.

"Thanks for looking for the bright side, Sirius," Nym said.

"Thank you, Nym," Arion said.

"Why do you call her Nym, Ari?" Aly asked.

"Why do you call me Ari?" Arion asked back, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Nevermind. What do you think Hermione will think?" Aly asked.

"I think she's going to be pretty surprised," Arion said.

"Who's Hermione?" Sirius asked.

"She's our best friend. I met her at school and helped with her bullying problem. Remember, I told you that story earlier?" Arion said.

"Oh, yes, when you accidentally broke that kids nose," Nym said.

"At least it was an accident that time," Aly defended.

"Here's the eggs. Now, what do you mean by 'that time'?" Remus asked with a smile.

Aly and Arion looked at each other before smiling innocently. "Nothing."

Sirius chuckled. "I already know about you getting into fights, so don't try to hide it," he said.

"Well, maybe I could have been a little less…defensive over my friends. But, they made fun of Aly, too," Arion said.

"And I'm sure that was the perfect role model, wasn't it," Sirius said.

Arion blushed. "Not really," she admitted.

Remus cut in here. "Sirius, enough. You can't talk considering all the fights you got into a Hogwarts," he said.

Aly and Arion laughed at the look on Sirius' face, like a scolded dog. "Those weren't my fault, either," he said.

"Oh, sure, and Severus did something every time, right?" Remus asked.

"Sure, let's go with that," Sirius said.

"Keep believing that," Remus said.

"Severus? As in, the professor I'm going to be having in a couple weeks?" Arion asked.

"WHAT! How did he become a professor?" Sirius asked, shocked.

"So that's why he hated me more then any of the other students. I was related to you," Nym said like she had just found out something important. "Thanks a lot."

"I didn't think he was going to be a professor," Sirius said.

"That explains why it looked like he hated me even before he really knew who I was. I'm going to have a fun, how many years is it? Seven years?" Arion asked.

"Yes, it's seven years," Sirius said. "Oops."

"Just don't do anything to add to my troubles when I get there, please Ari," Aly asked, half joking. She knew that if someone was bullying somebody else, Arion was going to freak out on them. Including teachers.

"I also have Nym to thank for turning Snape's head pink, do I not?" Arion asked.

Sirius and Remus choked on their eggs while Nym tried to defend herself. "It was an accident, I didn't know someone's foot was there, and you two be quiet or leave," Nym finished.

"That's fine. Arion, Aly, and I need to go out and get a house. Ready to go girls?" Sirius asked.

"Yes sir!" Aly and Arion said, saluting him.

"You'd think they were twins," Remus said, watching as Aly and Arion went to get their shoes on.

"True. They might be even worse then Prongs and I," Sirius commented.

"Have fun shopping. Oh, wait, before you go, here's the Daily Prophet. There might be something interesting in there," Nym said, throwing the newspaper that was just delivered at Sirius' head.

A huge headline jumped out at him.

"_**Sirius Black, Guilty as Charged? Another Mishap at the Ministry"**_

By: Rita Skeeter 

_Last evening at 7:00 pm, the trial of Sirius Alphard Black began. After missing for ten years, Transfiguration Professor Minerva McGonagall was able to find the young Black girl, Arion Andromeda Black. During the trial it was found out that Mr. Black was not the secret-keeper for Lily and James Potter, but the allegedly deceased Peter Pettigrew, who was revealed to actually be a rat animagus who, the day after the attack on the Potter's, was. Not only that, but he was able to fool investigators into thinking Black was the one to kill everyone on that street._

_It was revealed in the trial that there was an experiment held between the Auror's and the Department of Magical Transportation involving putting portkeys in a person's body in case of an emergency to be activated by a series of numbers and letters. Arion had claimed the activation of the portkey in her left shoulder had left her in pain as she was dropped off at a muggle orphanage, where she would be hidden for the next ten years._

_Asking the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, about why he delayed the trial of Sirius Black, he only said, "We wanted to see what his daughter, who was supposed to be there at the attack in the muggle world, had to say." I have to ask you, does that sound like a good enough reason to keep an innocent man in Azkaban for ten years? This reporter thinks not. This reporter is going to try her best to investigate other blunders in the ministry, such as, where is the location of Harry Potter?_

Sirius read this and paled. "This is not very good."

"What's wrong, daddy?" Aly asked.

Arion came and climbed on the chair a little bit and looked over Sirius' shoulder. "How could she find about what happened during the trial like that? There were no reporters!" she exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked.

"Some reporter found out about some things in the trial. Now everyone knows about the portkey I had in me," Arion explained quickly.

Remus paled. "Anything about me?" he asked.

Sirius read through the article again. "No, Moony, you're in the clear. Arion and I were the main focus of this article," he reassured him.

"Can we still look for a house?" Aly asked.

"I don't see why not. Now everyone will know you're free," Arion said.

Sirius nodded. "All right, let me shrink your things. We will go and find a house, now before too many people are out."

"Before you go, shouldn't you get some idea of where you guys want to live?" Nym suggested.

Sirius nodded, agreeing that this made sense. "Where would you two like to live?"

"In the country?" Aly asked.

"Or the beach with a lot of grassy area to play soccer," Arion suggested.

"I like that idea. Can we?" Aly asked.

Sirius thought about it for a moment. "I like that idea too. Somewhere nice to see the stars at night," he added.

With that, the three left Nym's apartment for a retail agency in Diagon Ally where they were hoping to be able to find a perfect house for them.

A/N: Ok, somewhat important. I have changed Aly's full name to Alyssa, but haven't changed it in the chapters she appears in before this one, but I will. I changed it to Alyssa, just to let everyone know. Also, a suggestion in a review had me change the story a little bit for Aly so that she is only a year younger then Arion instead of two like I originally thought. The two chapters are done, but I have a question. Do people want longer chapters or are is this a good length? I also realize this is going kinda slow, but soon I'll pick up the pace. There's just a few small things here in the beginning that needed to be taken care of for some of the story.

Also, if anyone can think of a better newspaper article for the story, please tell me. I'm not sure I like it, but I don't know what to do with it. And it needs to be there. Something happens in the next chapter that shows the article is needed, though, so please before next Monday or Tuesday, PM me or e-mail me.


	12. Houses, Hogwarts, and Harry

_Chapter 11: Houses, Hogwarts, and Harry_

Sirius apparated them to where a real-estate agent was located in Diagon Ally. Going inside, they were mobbed by someone.

"SIRIUS! It's been so long! I was so happy to hear you had been released from Azkaban and I knew you were going to be coming here! Who are they?" the woman asked.

"Hello Melissa. The redhead is Aly and the one with black hair is Arion. How about we go somewhere not right by a window to talk," Sirius asked.

"Right. Not everyone will know of your innocence right away. What kind of house are you looking for?" Melissa asked.

Sirius did some counting in his head. "Well, a house with four bedrooms would be nice. And we were hoping to get a house with some grass by a beach," he said.

"Well, let's pick out the place. Here's this house," Melissa said, creating a 3-d model on the table. "Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, living room, dining room/kitchen, fireplace, a room which can be changed to a game room, and tons of land," she said.

Sirius liked the looks of it from where he was, but wanted to make sure about things. "Is the house in the condition you're showing us?"

"Yes, we have a house-elf go clean it every other week," Melissa said.

"What do you two think?" Sirius asked.

"I like it," Arion said.

Aly looked a little harder at it. "It looks nice enough. I like it, too."

"All right, we'll take this one. Does it come with any furniture?" Sirius asked.

"Sure. Just give us a second and pick out some of the color choices. You should be able to move into the house by 5 o'clock tonight," Melissa informed them, bringing out some papers with furniture on them and papers for the house.

Soon, all the paperwork was finished and all the furniture picked out. "Now we need to go to Gringott's to get some money and go clothes shopping," Sirius said.

Arion groaned. "I just went clothes shopping yesterday," she complained.

"I know, clothes shopping is a drag. The alternative is for me to where the same thing for a while," Sirius said, referring to the outfit he borrowed the previous day from Remus and was still wearing.

Arion sighed. "I guess you have a point. I should probably get some normal clothes as well," she admitted.

"Why? You went shopping yesterday," Aly said, skipping along beside Arion.

"Some of my clothes are a little small," Arion said.

Sirius chuckled. "You actually grew?" he asked.

Arion looked indignant. "Yes, I actually grew. I've grown two inches since last year."

"She's always been the shortest in the class," Aly said.

"Thanks for reminding me," Arion grumbled.

Sirius laughed and messed up Arion's hair. "Come on, squirt. There are advantages to being short."

"I know. Everyone underestimates me," Arion said, a little cheerful.

"And then you get to point and laugh at them after. Now, come on. We should try to move a little faster then this," Sirius said, pointing out the fact that some of the stores were opening.

They walked the rest of the way in relative silence, Aly occasionally skipping and humming a tune as she saw all the magical things in the street. It was exciting for a 10 year old to see.

Entering Gringott's, Sirius went up to one of the goblins.

"Hello, Griphook. Long time no see," Sirius said to him.

Griphook rolled his eyes. "Yes, indeed. Would you like to make a transaction?" he asked.

"Yes. Can I also get some of the money changed to muggle money and get some sort of a credit card type device?" Sirius asked.

Griphook grinned a little. "Now, how do you know about those?"

"I had a friend who was muggle-born explain it to me. Do you?" Sirius asked again.

"There is a device like that. Just sign here," the goblin said, waving his hand and having the papers come to him and land in front of Sirius.

Sirius signed the papers and a small plastic card appeared. "Thanks Griphook."

"And I don't know if anyone told you, but your mother passed away. She thought you would be in Azkaban for the rest of your life, so she had no problems keeping you in her will," Griphook mentioned.

"Thanks for telling me. I'll see you around," Sirius said, leaving and pushing a curious Aly out of the bank as Arion followed.

"Who was that?" Aly asked, really wanting to ask 'What was that?'

"That would be a goblin. Pretty nice when you treat them like equals. I've got a cousin who's husband's family has been rude to them, so the goblins would love to see him thrown off his high horse," Sirius commented.

"Was that your cousin I saw last night?" Arion asked.

"That would be Narcissa. One of three sisters and one of the two who made 'respectable, pureblood marriages.' The other sister, Andy, married a muggle-born," Sirius said.

"What about the middle one?" Aly asked.

Sirius shook his head. "Bellatrix is in Azkaban. She was guilty of her crimes, though I don't know what they were yet."

Arion thought back to the previous day when she was robe shopping. "Dad, did the Malfoy's have a son?" she asked.

"I believe they did. I think my mum sent me a howler about disgracing them by you being born around the same time. Why?" Sirius asked.

Arion started laughing a little bit. "Well, I met him yesterday. I never knew someone would actually look better with green hair," she explained.

Sirius laughed as well. "How long will it take him to get it out?"

"I don't know how well it will work with magic, but…Aly, how long does it usually take for someone to lose the coloring in their hair when I mess with it?" Arion asked.

Aly thought. "Wasn't it about a week or so?"

"I think so," Arion answered, making Sirius laugh even harder.

"Well, as entertaining as this talk is, we need to go do some serious shopping. Come, let's go to the mall," Sirius said, grabbing both of their shoulders and apparating to the nearest muggle mall.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

After that afternoon, Arion changed her mind about some things. Shopping with Professor McGonagall for school things wasn't horrible; shopping for clothes for Aly and her dad was worse then apparating!

First, Aly wanted skirts. Arion would have been fine with that, but Sirius made her get a couple as well, for "just in case." She never wore skirts! Secondly, Sirius had to get all new clothes, allowing Arion and Aly to go off while he shopped. Arion wanted to go look at some video games, but Aly didn't. Aly wanted to go look at stuff in a store called Claire's. So, they split up since the stores were right next to each other. But, they took a long time arguing about it, so they only had about 5 minutes in each store.

"At least we got to go into the sports store," Arion thought, thinking back on how Sirius had to drag Aly to come into the sporting goods store where Arion did her clothes shopping. And got a new baseball bat.

Right now, though, it was five o'clock that evening, when the house was supposed to be finished. Sirius had apparated the three of them over to the house. Everything was at the house, but some of the decorating was off.

"Dad, I don't think Aly and I got the right rooms," Arion said.

Sirius walked down the hall. "Why?" he asked.

"Because our rooms are pink. Aly might like the color, but I'm a blue person myself," Arion informed him.

"Ok, not hard to fix," Sirius said, taking out the wand the ministry claimed was his. He changed the room to a dark blue. "Is that better?"

"Yes. I like it a lot better."

"Aly, do you want your room a different color?" Sirius asked.

"Could I have it be a green color?" Aly asked from her room.

"What shade?" Sirius asked.

There was a pause before Aly answered, "Emerald green."

"All right. Hold on a second," Sirius said, changing the color. "Is that better?"

"A lot better," Aly said.

Sirius looked around the house, leaving the fourth bedroom alone and changing his room to be Gryffindor colors. Satisfied, he asked the girls, "Are you okay with your rooms?"

"I'm fine with mine. Just need to unpack more," Arion answered.

Aly came out of her room to him, though. "Could I get some music sometime? Some sort of instrument, maybe?" she asked.

Sirius nodded. "Any instrument in particular?"

"Violin," Aly answered excitedly.

"Next time we go shopping in the muggle world, I'll bring you to get one," Sirius said, causing Aly to spin in circles. "Now, who wants to take a break and go with me to Hogwarts?"

"Is Snape going to be there?" Arion asked, wary of getting the man in a foul mood with her. Well, an even fouler mood with her.

"Probably somewhere in the building, but he's not part of the reason I'm going there. I want to talk to Professor Dumbledore," Sirius explained. "Though, it would be fun to prank him for old times' sake…"

"I'm coming!" Arion said, throwing the clothes in her hand on the bed. "Come on, Aly! It'll be fun."

Aly nodded. "Why not? We get to have fun apparating again!"

Arion shook her head. "Are there any other ways to travel in the Wizarding world?" she asked.

"Yes, there are, but we aren't connected to the Floo yet and I can't make a portkey," Sirius answered. "I would like to stay out of the public eye for a little while, so this is the best way to travel for now."

Arion sighed in defeat. "All right. Are we leaving now?"

"Yup," Sirius said, offering them both a hand, which they took. In seconds, they were on the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

Landing in Hogsmeade this second time was a lot easier on Arion then any other time. She was able to open her eyes and didn't feel sick at all.

Sirius looked over at her when he heard Arion sigh. "Are you all right?" he asked, remembering the last time Arion apparated conscious.

"Surprisingly, yes. Now, we should go get Aly, seeing as how she ran ahead," Arion pointed out.

Sirius blinked, looked around, and saw Aly on a hill about twenty feet away. He quickly turned into his dog form and ran towards her, leaving Arion to run after him.

When Sirius and Arion reached Aly, they were shocked. On every building was a picture of Sirius and a recent picture of Arion.

"Are there ways to get into Hogwarts without going through Hogsmeade, dad?" Arion asked.

Sirius, who decided it would be a good idea to stay as Padfoot, shook his head.

"Great. Well, at least I can change my appearance," Arion said, shutting her eyes for a moment. In a couple of moments, her hair was chin length and light brown and, when she opened her eyes, they were emerald green. Arion frowned, saying to herself, "I wanted them to be blue-green. Oh, well," she finished, shrugging.

Aly wanted to go ahead, but Sirius walked in front of her before starring her directly in the eye. Aly frowned before snapping her fingers. "You must want us to follow you, right dad?" she asked, receiving a nod from the dog.

"Lead on…Snuffles," Arion said with a smirk.

The dog, if possible, glared at Arion before walking down the lane with his nose slightly in the air. Aly, since she had never been to Hogsmeade, grabbed Arion's hand. The three walked through Hogsmeade without incident, but Arion thought it odd to see her face all over the place.

Going outside Hogsmeade, they came across a run-down building. "Why are we here?" Arion asked.

Sirius transformed back to be human. "No one comes up here because they think it's haunted. And, where did you come up with Snuffles?" he asked.

Arion shrugged before answering. "It just seemed to fit. How do we get in?"

"Now I can apparate us into the Shrieking Shack and we can go through a tunnel to Hogwarts," Sirius answered.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Aly said, letting go of Arion's hand and grabbing Sirius'

"An invitation," Arion grumbled, grabbing Sirius' other hand.

In a moment, all three of them were inside the Shrieking Shack, coughing from the large amount of dust around.

"I guess there haven't been any other werewolves to the school since Moony left," Sirius commented, leading the way out of the shack and through the tunnel.

When they made it through the tunnel, there was a weird thrashing sound. "The Whomping Willow still sounds pretty violent. Hang on a second," Sirius said before poking his head out of the hole. After a moment, Sirius' head came back and the thrashing stopped. "It should be fine now."

Coming out of the tunnel by the tree, Arion looked closer at the tree. She moved up to the tree and touched it. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, jumping back.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"I felt a huge shock. Nothing too big, just surprised," Arion answered.

Aly was starring off into the distance. "Wow," she commented, able to see Hogwarts for the first time.

Sirius smiled at the look of awe on Aly's face. "Wait until you see it at night. Then, it's really something to see."

Arion looked around and couldn't see anything separating her and the castle. "Hey, Aly, I'll race you," Arion said.

"Fine. Dad, tell us when," Aly said, accepting the challenge.

"3, 2, 1, go!" Sirius said, watching them take off before changing into a dog and chasing after them.

Reaching the castle, Arion and Aly touched the door at the same time, causing it to open. And, as everyone knows, when someone runs with that much force, it's almost impossible to stop without slowing down or running into something. As the doors opened, both girls fell.

Sirius caught up to them, laughing as he changed back. "Who won?" he asked.

"Tie," both girls said. "Why didn't you warn us about the doors opening?" Arion asked.

"I didn't think you would run into the door," he explained as they went up the stairs.

They walked most of the way in silence as Arion and Aly took in their surroundings. Everything was fine until they took the last turn to Dumbledore's office.

There was Professor Snape. "Evening, Snape," Sirius said.

"Black," Snape acknowledged, sneering. He took in the two girls with a raised eyebrow. Neither looked like the girl he met yesterday.

Arion was confused as to why Snape hadn't recognized her. Blinking a few times and going to run her hand through her hair like she did when she was nervous, she realized why. "I never changed my hair back. Oh, well," she thought.

"Is Professor Dumbledore in?" Sirius asked, trying to be civil in front of the girls.

"Yes," Snape answered before walking off.

Sirius watched him go. "That was rude. He didn't even tell me the password. We could be here most of the night, naming sweets," he grumbled.

"Was that Professor Snape?" Aly asked.

"Yes. Now I have to suffer with him as what was it? Potions teacher? Oh, and the password's 'Jellybeans,'" Arion said, watching the gargoyle move aside to reveal stairs. When Sirius and Aly looked at her, she said, "What? I was here yesterday."

Sirius led the way up the stairs, knocking on the door at the top. A 'Come in' was heard from the other side and Sirius, Arion, and Aly filed in.

"Well, Sirius, this is an unexpected surprise. Who are the two young ladies with you?" Dumbledore asked.

Arion smiled. "You know one of us," she said, changing her hair back to black and eyes to their normal stormy-blue color. With a little extra.

"Ari, there's still some green in there," Aly pointed out.

"What? Why am I having problems changing?" Arion said before trying again. This time they changed fully.

Dumbledore chuckled. "I should have guessed."

"And this is Alyssa, Arion's adopted sister," Sirius introduced, pushing Aly up.

Dumbledore smiled. "Hello, Alyssa. Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor Dumbledore."

"Hi. I should be coming next year," Aly informed him.

"Really? I'll look it up later. Now, how can I help you?" Dumbledore asked.

"I wanted to ask you about Harry," Sirius stated.

Dumbledore sighed. "I should have known this was coming up. Arion, Alyssa, why don't you follow Fawkes? He'll take you to go do something while your father and I talk," Dumbledore offered, Fawkes appearing at his elbow.

Aly and Arion looked at each other before nodding. "That would be fine," Arion said.

Fawkes flew out the door with Aly following. "Wait," Sirius said, causing Arion to turn around. "We might need you to come back and tell us what you saw last night."

Arion paled, but nodded. "I'll come back at 6:30 or earlier if Fawkes brings us back," she said, getting a nod of approval before she walked out the door.

Aly and Fawkes were waiting outside the gargoyle statue. "What did they want to ask you about?" Aly asked.

"They might want me to tell them what I saw last night," Arion answered, thinking about all she saw and giving a hard shudder.

Aly noticed this. "What did you see, Ari?" she asked.

"Stuff," Arion answered vaguely. She looked around to see where Fawkes was taking them. There was the Great Hall…which they walked right past. Fawkes came to a stop outside a picture of a bowl of fruit.

After Fawkes tickled the pear with his tail and the portrait opened, Arion and Aly's jaws dropped. Inside were many odd looking creatures working who looked up when the girls entered the room.

"How may we be helping, Miss'?" one of them asked.

Aly's stomach grumbled, reminding the two that they hadn't eaten yet. "Some food would be nice, but…who are you?" Arion asked, trying to be polite and not ask 'What are you?'

"I's Cady. Cady the house-elf. Who are you?" she asked while other house-elves got together food

"I'm Alyssa Black," Aly said.

"And I'm Arion Black. I might be coming down here often," Arion mused, looking around.

Cady gasped. "Is you being related to Sirius Black?" she asked.

"Yeah…he's our dad," Arion answered.

"He's here, actually. In the headmaster's office," Aly informed the elf.

Cady looked excited. "We elves are happy to help yous, Miss' Black," she squeaked, going to help the others.

Aly and Arion glanced at each other with a raised eyebrow while seating themselves at one of the tables. Fawkes flew around the kitchen before deciding to perch on Arion's shoulder. A few moments after sitting down, the food appeared in front of them.

Talking about how their lives had changed in the past day, Aly said, "I wonder how Harry's aunt and uncle are taking things?"

"Not as badly as things in the past. He hasn't gotten punished as far as I could see," Arion commented absently, taking a sip of what the house-elves called pumpkin juice. Seeing Aly's smug smile, she thought of what she just said and spit the juice out, making it land on Aly.

"Arion, that was disgusting!" Aly cried out, trying to blotch out the pumpkin juice.

"You shouldn't have done that. Weaseling information out of me when I'm relaxed," Arion reprimanded.

While Cady helped Aly get the pumpkin juice out of her clothes, Fawkes suddenly disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Aly asked.

"I think he went to Dumbledore's office," Arion answered as Fawkes reappeared. "What's up, Fawkes? Does Dumbledore want us back?" Fawkes nodded, offering his tail to them to grab. Arion grabbed one feather while Aly, looking at her outfit with a critical eye, grabbed another. Two seconds later, they were starring into the twinkling eyes of Dumbledore.

"What happened to you?" Sirius asked Aly, seeing her slightly angry face.

"Arion proved she would have made a good fountain," Aly answered, checking her skirt for any pumpkin juice.

Arion rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't have asked me about that then. Especially since I had pretty much said I didn't want to talk about it."

"You still didn't have to spit juice at me," Aly said.

"It's not like it stained or anything. The house-elves cleaned it out," Arion retorted.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, reminding the girls that they had an audience. They started before saying, "Sorry."

"That's all right. Now, Arion, what do you know about Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.

Arion paled while her eyes flashed. "What do you mean? I know about his parents and where he went, but what do you want to know?"

Sirius didn't want to know why Arion was pale, but had to ask. "Was he abused?"

"How would you define the word 'abused'?" Arion asked.

Aly, knowing about Arion's tendency to try and avoid questions by dragging things out, snapped. "Arion, we know you don't want to answer the question, but we would like some idea about Harry's life."

Sirius looked at Aly in surprise after she said this while Arion flushed, her eyes finally stopping their flashing. Sirius took a deep breath, recognizing those eyes. They looked like an eleven-year-old Lily's eyes.

"Not the best. The question was, was he abused? Physically, you wouldn't be doing too well if for a punishment for doing magic involved not getting food for a couple days and being shut up in a small cupboard. His cousin is about three to four times his size and is always chasing Harry to beat him up. I think the cousin, Dudley, calls it 'Harry Hunting.' That's the worst of the physical," Arion said, eyes burning.

Sirius looked like he wanted to murder Dumbledore while Dumbledore looked like he suddenly had the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Continue," he said, wearily.

"For mentally, well, he doesn't try to do anything in class for fear of him doing better than his cousin and being accused of magic. He's meek and quiet and gets put down continuously. Not a word of encouragement gets sent his way. Whenever Harry has had a nightmare about that night, he's had to deal with by himself since the first time he went to his aunt and uncle and his uncle locked him up in the cupboard for disturbing their sleep."

Aly looked shocked. Sirius was glaring at Dumbledore while Dumbledore got up and went to get a book.

"Can I get Harry now?" Sirius asked. "There's no telling how they are treating him now."

"Harry should be fine. His Aunt and Uncle are too afraid to do anything more to anger magic folk," Arion reassured him, trying to reassure herself as well.

Aly was watching Dumbledore. "What are you doing, sir?"

Dumbledore looked up at her. "I'm looking for your parents."

Arion's ears perked at this. "Couldn't you use a spell to find out?"

Sirius answered while Dumbledore kept looking. "It only helps when the person actually knows who their parents are. Did you find them?" Sirius asked Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's eyes had quit twinkling and there appeared to be a look of surprise on his face. "Your name is Alyssa, right? And your birthday is in April?"

"Yes. April 12 is what the doctors guessed. Why?" Aly asked, wary.

"Because there is only one person down here for that day. The last name of the biological parents is Dursley."

A/N: Yay! Aly's purpose in the story is actually explained! (granted, when she first appeared, I had no plot for her...) How do you like the longer chapter? Do you hate it? Do you hate what's happened! LET ME KNOW!!! I've had some ideas come to me (which some people that I'm not going to name kinda look at me weirdly for...) From this point on, I'm going to start trying to reply to reviews. Now, again, I love when people help me with ideas! I have the next chapter written and I'm working on the one after that (just to give people what I have). I might update Wednsday, but I make no promises. If not, next Monday will probably be when. Well, I'm going now! Please review!


	13. Food Fights with a Splash of Blue

_Chapter 12: Food Fights with a Splash of Blue_

Three jaws dropped. "What!" they exclaimed at the same time.

"Did you just say…" Aly started.

"Dursley?" Sirius and Arion finished.

"You have to be kidding," Aly said, going paler then normal.

"No, I'm not 'kidding.' Though, this isn't completely a bad thing…" Dumbledore trailed off thoughtfully.

Aly was thoughtful. "The Dursley's are bad, but not everyone in the family can be that bad. After all, Harry's apparently my cousin and my aunt was all right."

"Yes, there is that, but there was another issue I wasn't too sure about how to solve. There are wards set up around Harry that have to deal with the blood protection Lily gave to Harry when she defended him against Voldemort's killing curse. Now that we know Alyssa is related to Harry by blood, those wards should protect your house as well," Dumbledore said.

"We can go get him then?" Arion asked excitedly.

"Yes, go get him. I'll set up the wards," Dumbledore said.

Sirius looked excited for a moment before it was replaced with a thoughtful look. "Do you think the ministry will allow me to take him in? I know that I was allowed to get Arion, but Aly and Harry as well?"

Dumbledore thought for a moment. "Well, in their wills, James and Lily named you as the primary guardian. The ministry can't do anything about that, so go ahead and get him from his aunt and uncle's," Dumbledore said.

"How should we be going there? I don't think it would be wise to apparate there. Do you have a portkey or something?" Sirius asked.

Dumbledore looked slightly guilty. "I made a portkey to take me to Privet Drive the moment there was an attack on the house," he explained, getting up and grabbing an object from behind him in the shape of a lily.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way. Arion, can you look like you did yesterday so Harry will be able to recognize you?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Arion said, changing her eye shape and growing her hair out a bit more.

"Should we ask them about me?" Aly asked.

Sirius looked at his new daughter. "Why not? Show them what a lovely girl you have turned out to be."

"Make sure to make some comment on how much she looks like Lily. I'm sure they would love that," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.

"Can we stop talking already and just go?" Arion asked, impatient.

"Just a warning for you, Arion. I hope you don't have any issues with the portkey since the last time you used a portkey, it was in your shoulder and caused you to black out," Sirius warned. "Wouldn't be an impressive rescue if one of us faints trying to help," he continued, trying to lighten the mood.

Arion glared. "I don't faint. The last time I did that was…" she trailed off, leaving Aly to finish.

"Last week when Spencer got bit by a dog."

"There was a lot of blood! And, he ran at me with it," Arion defended.

"As long as there isn't a lot of blood, you'll be fine. What's the password for the portkey?" Sirius asked.

"H-A-R-R-Y," Dumbledore said. "Here's a copy of the will for proof," he said, handing a piece of paper over to Sirius.

"All right, see you in probably an hour at our house?" Sirius asked.

"Where is it?"

"1861 Hanover Drive. It's a beach house," Sirius said.

"Okay. Good luck," Dumbledore said before grabbing a hold of Fawkes tail and disappearing to the house.

"Ready you two?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," they answered.

"Put a finger on it. Harry," Sirius said after they put their fingers on it. There was a tug on their navels and off they went to the end of Privet Drive, by a park.

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Once the three got to the park, Arion took off running for the trees. Sirius and Aly followed only to hear her getting sick.

"Well, at least you didn't faint," Aly said.

"Are you all right?" Sirius asked, conjuring a handkerchief and passing it to Arion so she could wipe her face.

Arion put out a shaking hand and took the cloth, wiping her mouth. "I should be all right. Can I have a glass of water?"

Sirius nodded and conjured a glass of water. Arion gratefully took a sip of the water before putting a piece of hard candy in her mouth.

"I'm ready now. Can we go?" Arion asked, looking normal except for being a bit pale.

"Mental note: Arion should not take portkeys for they make her sick," Sirius thought, leading the two girls down Privet Drive to number 4.

Going down the street, Aly and Sirius looked around with wonder. "How do they make it so that twenty houses and their lawns look identical?" Sirius asked.

Arion wasn't looking at the houses around her. Her gaze was locked onto number 4. "How are we going to do this? Do you want Aly and I to help Harry pack and explain things while you talk to them?" Arion asked Sirius.

"That may be the best idea. Who wants to ring the doorbell?" Sirius asked like it was some prize.

Rolling her eyes, Aly rang the doorbell. Constantly. Listening, Arion thought it sounded like it was to the beat of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The door banged open in the middle of the third line.

"What do you want? Don't you see the sign saying 'No soliciting?'" a big man with little neck said angrily.

Arion glared at the man. "Hello, Vernon. I would like to talk to you and Petunia about something," Sirius said.

Vernon looked to be trying to place Sirius' face when Petunia walked from the kitchen. "Vernon, who is it?" she asked before coming to a stop behind him. Aly and Arion knew she recognized Sirius as her face paled.

"Now, may we please come in?" Sirius said. "Thank you," he said, pushing his way in. Arion and Aly followed.

Vernon looked shocked at the fact that Sirius didn't seem to be intimidated by his size. "What do you want?" he asked, angrily.

"I would like to talk to you about your nephew, Harry," Sirius said.

"There is no one here by that name," Vernon said.

"Then who is that?" Aly asked, pointing at the boy on top of the stairs.

Everyone looked up and saw Harry looking down at them with wide green eyes. "Hello, Harry. Remember me?" Arion asked.

Harry nodded slowly. "I met you yesterday in Diagon Alley. Arion Black, right?"

"Yes. We have some things to talk to you about. Aly, why don't you come with me to go talk to your cousin," Arion said, making sure to make it clear who Aly was to the Dursley's.

Running up the stairs before the Dursley's could say anything, they could only hear Vernon roar, "Who was that!"

"That, Vernon, would be your daughter that you left at the orphanage. Was it because of her uncanny likeness to Lily? Or could you tell she was magical?" Arion, Aly, and Harry could hear as they went into Harry's room.

Harry looked at them with big eyes. "Okay, so what's going on?"

"Well, let me make some introductions. Harry, this is Alyssa Black, my adopted sister. Aly, Harry Potter. We just found out today that Aly was actually your younger cousin when we went to Professor Dumbledore to see about getting you out of here," Arion explained.

"How am I getting out of here? And, why haven't I heard of either of you before yesterday?" Harry asked with a look of 'what has happened to my nice little sane world where no one likes me?' He was good with people ignoring him.

"Actually, for a year in a half of our lives we grew up together before your parents died. Our dad is your godfather and the person Aunt Lily and Uncle James wanted to raise you. Sadly, there were some complications causing me to go to an orphanage and dad to go to prison," Arion said.

"As for getting out of here, dad is downstairs talking to…those people to get you out of here. And, not knowing about me? I just found out that my biological parents were those people downstairs," Aly said with a look of disgust on her face.

"We should pack your things. Is this your owl?" Arion asked, referring to the snowy white owl in the corner.

"Um…yes, that's Hedwig. Most of my things are packed," Harry said.

"Hmm…I wonder how she and Adria are going to get along…" Arion said, trailing off.

"Who's Adria?" Harry asked.

"My new cat I got yesterday," Arion replied.

Arion and Aly helped Harry to pack his things into the trunk. When they finished, the three of them sat on the old bed in the room.

"There's one more thing you should know. Arion?" Aly said, wordlessly telling Arion to tell Harry about what she knew.

Harry looked over at Arion, who blushed and whose eyes flashed a couple of colors. "Well, I have this ability where whenever I re-meet a person who I haven't seen in a while and whom I have a bond with, I can see flashes of their lives when I touch them."

"And?" Harry asked, interested about this magical ability. "How many people can do this I wonder?" he thought.

"I saw some things from your life here," Arion blurted out, causing Harry to pale. "I change my mind. As long as I don't meet anyone else who can do that, I will be happy," Harry thought to himself, thinking about what Arion probably knew about now.

"I won't bring up anything, though. Was there anything you liked to do at school or anything?" Arion asked, quickly changing the subject.

"I liked to draw…though, running around wasn't too bad. As long as Dudley wasn't the one chasing me," Harry said.

"Oh, no. Not another artsy person," Arion groaned while Aly grinned.

"Who knows? Maybe there's a magical sport Harry will be good at," Aly said.

"Do either of you know what Quidditch is?" Harry asked.

Arion and Aly looked at each other. "No. What is it?" Aly asked.

"He doesn't know or he wouldn't be asking us," Arion said.

"He might have some idea," Aly said.

"Obviously not or he would have said something about it. I wonder if it's a wizarding world sport?" Arion pondered.

"A boy I met in the robe shop mentioned something about teams," Harry interrupted the tennis match.

Arion blinked a couple times before asking, "Was it some blonde boy who was talking about being in Slytherin?"

"Yes. Do you know him?" Harry asked.

"I met him after you did. He sort of insulted my dad and… well…" Arion trailed off.

"Ari has a habit of changing a person's hair when they make her angry," Aly finished. "What color did you change it to?"

"Green. Though, I can change my appearance as well," Arion said, changing her eyes and hair, making herself look sort of like a girl version of Harry with green eyes and untidy hair.

Harry stared at her for a moment before pointing out, "My nose and mouth don't look like that."

Arion sighed. "I know. I can't seem to get how to change my face," she said, changing her features to normal.

"At least your eyes didn't get stuck on green this time," Aly pointed out.

"Maybe it was because of the memories that I couldn't do anything other then change my eyes green and had problems changing them back. I'll ask Nym," Arion said.

"Nym?" Harry asked.

"Our dad, Sirius Black's cousin's daughter. Her name is Nymphadora, which she hates. She tried to get me to call her Tonks. It didn't work," Arion said.

"Anyone else I should know about before we go to your house?" Harry asked.

"There's Uncle Remus. He's our father's closest friend. Then there's Professor Dumbledore, who we will be meeting up with at the house. Do you like to swim? We live on the coast somewhere and it's really nice to see and probably swim," Aly said.

Harry blushed. "I was never taught how to swim," he answered.

Arion's blood, which had been simmering, went up a few degrees. After all, she knew from her memories that Dudley was taught how to swim. Aly noticed Arion's eyes flashing and heard a shout come from downstairs. "BOY!" it said in a masculine voice.

There was a thundering sound as someone was coming up the stairs. Arion stepped in front of Aly and Harry as the door burst open to show Vernon Dursley. Who had electric blue hair.

Vernon shoved Arion out of the way, causing her to go into the dresser and hit her head. Blinking to get the stars out of her eyes, Arion saw Vernon reach to grab Harry. Arion's magic came to the surface more, there was a spark of light, and Vernon went flying out of the room.

Sirius was almost hit by the flying Dursley. He poked his head in the room. "Is everyone all right in here?" he asked, noticing Arion rubbing the back of her head.

"I'll be fine. I just might have a small headache soon. Can we go now?" Arion asked with a pleading note, not wanting to be here for another moment. After all, who knew if the walrus was going to wake up and try for revenge.

"Hold on a minute. Petunia said she had something to give to Harry. What happened to cause you to get angry, Arion?" Sirius asked, coming into the room. "Hello, Harry," he said, giving his hand to Harry to shake.

"Hello, Sirius," Harry said quietly, shaking his hand. Anyone looking at Sirius could tell that he wanted to pull the boy into a tight hug, but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea.

"Harry was telling us how these people didn't teach him how to swim when I know they had the tub of lard know how. I was already angry from things that happened before that, though," Arion said.

Aly looked amazed. "Wait, isn't Dudley really fat? He was able to get into the water without sinking to the bottom?" she asked.

Before anyone could answer (or do anything but laugh in the case of Harry and Arion), Petunia came around the corner with a box in her hand. "Here," she said, giving it to Harry. "Your mother left this with us about a month before she died." Was all Petunia said before leaving, not even sparing a glance at her daughter, who glared at her mother.

"Are we ready to leave now?" Sirius asked.

"Do I have to ever come back here?" Harry asked nervously.

"Not unless you want to. Let's go before Dumbledore sends someone to collect us. Though, it would be entertaining to see him send Snape to come get us," Sirius said with a smile on his face.

Arion rolled her eyes. "Please, don't antagonize him anymore. Aly and I have to get through the next 7 years. Not to mention Harry will probably have problems as well," she pointed out.

"True, true. Now, someone is going to have to hold onto me tightly. I only have two hands," Sirius said.

"I vote on a hand," Arion said, still not comfortable with apparating.

"Maybe Harry should hold on tightly," Aly said.

"Is that okay with you, Harry?" When Harry nodded, Sirius said, "Okay, now, you should let your owl out the window to fly to where we are going. She'll be able to find the place. You're going to have to hold on tightly and hope you have a reaction similar to Aly's and not Arion's," Sirius explained.

Harry let Hedwig out the window, let Sirius shrink his trunk, and grabbed onto Sirius' waist. Arion grabbed one hand while Aly grabbed the other. In two seconds, they were gone from Privet Drive, leaving no trace of the young boy who had lived there for a decade.

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Arriving at the house, Arion ran straight for a bathroom while Harry was trying to get his head on straight.

"Not again," Sirius said, following Arion to the bathroom to help her.

"What's wrong with Arion?" Harry asked.

"She had a bad reaction to traveling by portkey. Not to mention Arion has been having some difficulty traveling by apparation," Aly explained.

"That's what it was called," Harry said.

"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," Aly chirped as the headmaster came around to the living room, where they had ended up.

"Hello, Alyssa. And hello to you, Harry. It's been a long time," Dumbledore said.

"Do I know you, sir?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but it has been such a long time since I have seen you. I am Professor Dumbledore," Dumbledore said.

"Aren't you the headmaster of Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I am. How did you remember that?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well…" Harry trailed off, not wanting to go into details.

"Hagrid doesn't like when people insult you, sir. Umm…Vernon Dursley insulted you," Arion answered, weakly coming from the bathroom. "Are there less taxing ways of traveling in the wizarding world? I don't like portkeys. Though, apparating wasn't bad the couple of times before this one."

"Why did it get worse?" Dumbledore asked.

"Probably because I had taken a portkey before that and hadn't fully recovered from that. After all, how can I be comfortable with a portkey after what happened?" Arion asked.

"Sorry about that, Arion," Sirius said, coming back from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice.

Arion shrugged. "I'd rather be sensitive to portkeys then dead."

"Good point. Arion, Alyssa, why don't you show Mr. Potter where his bedroom is," Dumbledore suggested.

"Okay. Follow us," Aly said, grabbing Harry's hand and dragging him to the room next to Arion's.

The room was the same size as the rest of the bedrooms, but it was a light blue. "Aly, do you think the house-elves chose the colors based on if we were male or female?" Arion asked Aly as they helped Harry put some of his things away.

"That's pretty observant of you, Arion. I think they did," Aly answered.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"The house-elves made our two rooms pink. I hate pink," Arion said.

"It's a pretty color, but not my favorite," Aly commented.

"Harry might like the color of your room now," Arion said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because she changed it to be emerald green. The same color as your eyes," Arion answered him.

Harry thought for a moment. "I'm not sure what color I want this room…maybe white," he said.

"Why white?" Arion and Aly asked.

"Because I can do interesting stuff to it to decorate. I could draw something and then paint it on myself," Harry answered.

"Can't wait to see what you choose to draw," Arion said. Then she remembered something. "Umm…since we're done in here, can we go into my room? I still need to unpack," she admitted.

"Why unpack? Your room is usually a mess anyway," Aly said, leading the way out of the room.

"True, but I would like it to be organized for maybe one night so I can get used to the room before messing it up. And, you can't talk about my room being messy," Arion mentioned, opening the door to her room.

"Arion, that was mostly your stuff. I'm actually pretty neat about my things," Aly said.

Arion just glared as she grabbed the clothes on her bed that she had left before going to see Dumbledore. In a couple of minutes, there was an exclamation of surprise.

"Hey, the radio is in here. We should see if we can listen to music here," Aly said, plugging the radio into a plug.

"I think dad decided to be able to use muggle things for the three of us since we were raised in the muggle world," Arion commented.

After much debate on music, they finally found one they could all agree on. The work was done much faster and they were able to stop soon after.

"You know, I'm kinda hungry. Anyone else?" Arion asked.

"No, I'm still full on Hogwarts food," Aly said.

Harry shrugged. "I'm hungry as well," he answered Arion.

"On to the kitchen!" Arion said, marching Aly out the door and leaving Harry to trail after them, shaking his head in amusement.

After eating about half of the food they scrounged up, Aly 'accidentally' paid Arion back for the pumpkin juice by 'accidentally' having her strawberry fly out of her hand and onto Arion's shirt.

"Oops," Aly replied innocently.

Arion glared and didn't say a word. In two seconds, she threw something at Aly, causing a food fight to come about in the kitchen once Arion had accidentally hit Harry with something aimed at Aly. Sirius came to see what the noise was all about and found the food fight. Everyone paused for a moment as Sirius stood there with ice cream running down his face.

"Uh-oh," Arion said.

"Sorry dad," Aly apologized.

"She/he started it," the three said, pointing at one another.

Sirius didn't look mad. Actually, he had a big evil grin on his face as he entered the room and grabbed a carton of ice cream, throwing it at Arion. After getting over the shock, the food fight started up again and ended when Dumbledore entered the room, chuckling.

Sirius tried to put on a stern face, which failed since he was covered with ice cream, strawberries, some odd brown stuff, and other items associated with them. "That was very wrong of you. You should not throw food in the kitchen. Aly, what is this brown stuff you threw at me?"

"Nutella," Aly answered.

Arion walked up to her dad, stuck her finger on his arm where the nutella was, tasted it, and said, "Mmm…not too bad. We should try this combination when it's not on us. Last one to the showers has to have this stuff on them for a while!" she called, half way down the hall. Aly and Harry raced after her.

"Looks like you're going to have your arms full," Dumbledore commented, eyes twinkling.

"Looks like it," Sirius said, smiling before cleaning up the food fight remains from the kitchen and off of himself.

A/N: Ok, no one hate this chapter. I had a hard time with it. Anyways, Arion has a sensitivity to Portkeys. Remember, she had a nice, unexpected ride on one when she was little and it caused severe pain (obviously). Also, this is an...odd chapter. I probably should have read it over one more time (even though I've read it several times...). If anyone feels like being a beta reader, PM me. Also...I can't remember if I replied to everyone's reviews. Sorry if I didn't. Oh, yeah. Present for all of you this weekend (mainly because I might not be able to update next week...unless I hijack my cousin's computer in Ohio). So, Saturday or Sunday I should have another chapter up. After this one, things won't be so drawn out (they seem long to me...). Luvs! Leave a review! (please?)


	14. Malls and Introductions

_Chapter 13: Malls and Introductions to the Black House_

The next day started late for the Black's. Well, the biological Black's. Harry and Aly had woken up, made breakfast, and were reading when Sirius stumbled into the room.

Sirius blinked, looked around, and asked, "Where's Arion?"

"Still sleeping," Harry said, flipping a page of his History of Magic book.

"At 11:00?"

"Dad, you just woke up. You can always go wake her up," Aly suggested, moving her eyes from her book. "Just don't do it suddenly unless you don't like your hair color."

Sirius shrugged and walked out of the room towards Arion's room. Once he left, Aly went back to reading with an evil smile on her face. After a couple of minutes of silence, Harry asked, "What do you think he's doing?"

Before Aly could answer, they heard a voice yell, "Stop with the poking already! I'm awake!"

Aly snickered. After ten minutes, Sirius re-entered the room, ready for the day, with…

"Nice green hair, Sirius," Harry commented, snickering gently.

Aly was laughing her head off. "I warned you…"

"I didn't wake her up suddenly, though," Sirius defended. "I poked her a few times until she woke up."

Arion chose this moment to enter the living room, ready for the day but looking half-dead. "Whose idea was it to wake me up?" she asked grumpily, glaring at Sirius.

Sirius and Harry pointed at Aly. Arion glared at her and a few seconds later, Aly had black hair, which made her look like Harry's sister.

"Ari, you needed to wake up. We were going to talk to Hermione today," Aly protested.

Arion looked to be thinking for a moment, sighed, and changed Sirius and Aly's hair back to normal. "You know, when a person's thrown up a couple of times in a short amount of time, they tend to be a little more tired then normal," she commented as she walked towards the kitchen.

"Oops, forgot about that," Aly said.

Harry rolled his eyes, continuing to read as Sirius followed Arion to the kitchen to get some lunch.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

After lunch, Arion was back to normal and had her usual small smile on her face.

"Hey dad, can we have a phone?" Arion asked.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Our friend, Hermione, is a muggle," Aly said.

"Why don't we go somewhere with a pay phone for now and suggest meeting her somewhere," Sirius suggested.

Aly jumped up, excited. "We can have her meet us at the mall! Harry has to get new clothes anyway," she suggested.

Arion groaned while Sirius was thinking about it. "Didn't we have enough of the mall yesterday?" Arion asked.

Aly gestured to the now blushing Harry. "Do you really want him walking around with –shudders- Dursley castoffs?" Aly asked.

Arion looked over at Harry who was wearing clothes four times his size. She sighed, "No, I don't"

"Then it's settled!" Aly said.

"What are you thinking, Sirius?" Harry asked, noticing the thoughtful look on his face.

"Maybe we should invite Remus and Nymph. I'm sure they would have fun," Sirius said.

The three kids looked at each other and nodded. "We like that idea," Arion said.

"I'll be back in a few moments," Sirius said, leaving the room.

Arion looked between the two readers. "Now what should I do?"

"Go stand on your head," Aly suggested, having sat down and continued reading.

"Or, we could put our books away and wait," Harry said, closing his book.

"Finally! Someone to talk to!" Arion said.

"What should we talk about?" Aly asked, sighing as she put her book down.

Arion thought for a moment, but it was Harry who came up with the idea. "We cou7ld talk about when our magic has appeared," he suggested.

Arion and Aly looked at each other and shrugged. "We might not be able to tell many stories of us using individual magic," Arion said.

"Most of the time we were with each other," Aly added.

"Is there one characteristic that appeared whenever you think you used your magic?" Harry asked.

Arion smiled, slightly evil. "Whenever I was the cause of accidental magic that I know for sure was me, I left behind another gift."

Harry waited, but nothing further came from her. "What 'gift' did you leave?"

"People would get a new hair color. Of course, as you could see this morning, when Ari gets irritated at a person, their hair also turns a different color," Aly finished. "I don't think I've done too much magic, but usually things move when I'm not pleased about something."

"We haven't shown much magic, though. Generally, we get into fights…rendering the need to use magic no longer needed," Arion pointed out. "It drove the last owner of the orphanage insane."

Harry was laughing at picturing these two girls, both smaller then him and he was pretty small, beating up Dudley's gang. Something about the evil grin the two shared made him think they would be a hard adversary to beat.

"Now, about your magic…" Aly asked, causing Harry to quickly sober.

"Well, little things were always blamed on me, like food burning when I wasn't there. One of the first times I really remember was when this one teacher was comparing Dudley and I as the dumbest people in the class. I never tried because I was afraid the Dursley's would do something. I got angry and…well…she looked better with the blue hair anyway," Harry defended. Aly and Arion were laughing their heads off.

"Enough of story-time hour. What kind of clothes are you going to wear?" Aly asked, eyes sparkling.

Arion groaned while Harry replied, "Mainly jeans, some sweatshirts, and some t-shirts."

Aly pouted, causing Harry to look confused and Arion to laugh. "Aly, not everyone cause about any sort of fashion. Just if they look all right," Arion was able to get out between her laughter at Aly's face.

Aly would have retorted, but Sirius returned. "Nymph and Moony said they would meet us at the mall. Ready?"

"If it gets us away from the fashion police officer, I was ready last year," Arion said, grabbing a hold of Sirius' waist to use against Aly. Harry grabbed one hand while Aly, scowling, took the other hand.

Appearing in an alley, Arion was able to keep a calm stomach. The four moved out of the alley and walked down the street to the mall.

Aly looked around and spotted Remus and Nym. "Nym! Uncle Remus!" she called, running over to them. "Hi!" she said, stopping without crashing into either of them.

"Hello, Aly," Nym greeted.

"Hey, Padfoot, Ari," Remus greeted. When Remus saw Harry (who had been hiding partially behind Sirius and Arion), he started. "Hello Harry."

Arion turned to her dad with an accusing expression on her face. "Did you not tell them about Harry?" she accused.

Sirius didn't answer, only grinned. "I think that's answer enough, Ari," Aly said, causing Arion to grumble under her breath. Something about father's who needed to grow up completely, Aly thought.

While the three were having their 'argument' about telling people information, Harry, Remus, and Nym introduced themselves and were watching.

Blinking at the absurdity of the conversation, which was now about if black and brown go together, Harry butted in. "Wasn't there a reason to be here?"

Arion stopped in the middle of her sentence with an 'oh yeah' look on her face. "Where's a pay phone? I need to call 'Mione."

"Do you remember her number?" Aly asked.

Arion gave her a look like she was crazy. "Of course! Remember how many times I dial it, asking for help on homework or in the summer to hang out?" Arion asked, spotting a pay phone outside the nearby gas station. Before saying a word, she ran over to it, taking some quarters (or the English equivalent) she thoughtfully shoved into her pocket.

Dialing the number, Arion listened to it ring for a couple seconds before she heard someone on the other end say, "Hello?"

"'Mione, is that you?"

"Arion? Yes, it's me. Where are you? Are you at the orphanage? I have to talk to you," Hermione said quickly.

"I'm at the mall in London. Can you get a ride here?"

"My mum is home right now," Hermione said. Arion heard some muffled conversation before Hermione came back on. "We can be there in about twenty minutes. Where should we meet you?" Hermione asked.

Arion thought quickly. "Meet us by the fountain in the middle. Where tourists and visitors throw coins."

"OK. Meet you there," Hermione said, hanging up before another word could be said.

Arion hung up, chuckling a bit. Hermione will never change. Ready to jump into anything at anytime as long as it wasn't too dangerous. Such as the 'rock climbing' expedition behind the orphanage, helping her with her fear of heights…

Walking to where the others were waiting, she was ambushed by Aly. "When is she coming? Where are we meeting her? Who's…humph?" Aly asked, talking fast and in one breath until Harry put his hand over her mouth. Aly glared at him before poking him hard in the side, causing him to jerk away and take away his hand.

Arion held in her laughter at the other's looks of bewilderment before answering Aly's questions. "She said in about twenty minutes, we're meeting at the fountain in the middle of the mall, and her mum is bringing her."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Aly cried, grabbing Harry and Arion's hands and dragging them towards the fountain.

Remus blinked after them, jolted out of his thoughts by Nym and Sirius pushing him forward. "I'm reminded of when we came here with Lily and James before Harry was born," he commented, watching the three kids ahead of them.

"Let me guess, Aly is the one that brought this on," Sirius commented, smirking.

Remus recognized that tone. That tone meaning Sirius knew something he didn't know. "All right, Padfoot. What do you know that we don't know?" Remus asked with a suffering tone.

Sirius smirked. "According to Dumbledore and the Hogwarts registration, before the adoption, her name was Alyssa May Dursley."

Remus stopped and seemed to choke on the air he was breathing. "Dursley?" he choked out.

Nym looked between the two men she was walking with and the kids ahead of her. "Dursley? What's important about the name Dursley?" she asked.

Remus seemed to gain control of himself and started walking again. "Dursley is the last name of Lily's sister and her family, meaning Aly is Harry's cousin."

"Oh," was all Nym had to say. "Why was Aly at an orphanage if her parents were alive?"

"She was dropped off at the orphanage because Petunia figured out Aly was magic," Sirius explained with a tad bit of anger in his voice.

"Oh," Remus and Nym said. They walked in relative silence, catching up to Arion, Harry, and Aly at the fountain.

Harry sat on a bench with Aly and Arion, who were looking for Hermione. "Who exactly is Hermione?" he asked.

Arion and Aly looked at each other in thought. "How to describe 'Mione in" Arion looked at a nearby clock, "Five minutes. She loves to read. The best term to describe her would be a bookworm. Hermione is our age and the top of my class. She…"

"Talking about me, Ari?" a voice from behind them asked.

Arion and Aly jumped up off the bench while Harry jerked forward, but didn't leave the bench. "Hermione, don't do that!" Aly said.

Hermione just laughed, bushy hair falling behind her shoulders. She stopped laughing after a few moments and noticed Harry. "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?"

"Harry Potter," Harry introduced, holding out a hand for Hermione to shake, which she took.

Hermione took back her hand and gaped at Arion and Aly, who looked confused at her reaction. "Are you both witches, too?"

Arion and Aly blinked at each other before going, "We should have guessed. Who else would have flying books." They were referring to an incident involving books flying after Arion after she insulted a couple of them.

"Guessed what?" Sirius asked. "Is this Hermione?"

Remus and Nym walked over to the group. Arion sighed. "Dad, Remus, Nym, this is Hermione Granger."

"Hermione, this is our adopted uncle, Remus Lupin, Arion's cousin, Nymphadora Tonks," Aly started the other half of the introductions.

"Please, call me Tonks," Nym said.

"And Arion's true father, Sirius Black," Aly finished, ignoring Nym's interruption.

Hermione's mum had chosen this moment to come over at this point. "Everything all right, Hermione?"

"Yes, mum."

"I need to go to work now, sweetheart. Have fun. Hello, Arion, Alyssa," Hermione's mother said.

"Hello, Mrs. Granger. Thanks for bringing Hermione," Arion and Aly said. Hermione's mum smiled and left.

Hermione looked at Sirius with an odd look on her face. "Aren't you supposed to be in prison?" she asked.

Arion laughed at the look on Sirius' face. "Hermione, it's a long story. Let's just say dad was innocent of those crimes," Arion answered.

"We're going to go pick out some clothes for Harry. Don't go to far," Sirius said.

"We're probably going to be in the bookstore, knowing Hermione," Arion said with a smile.

Sirius laughed, shot Remus an amused look, and left with an arm draped around Harry's shoulders. Even though Arion and Aly didn't know Harry that long, they laughed at the obvious 'please help me from this crazy psycho' look on his face as Sirius continued talking about what they were going to buy. Nym followed, grabbing Remus' arm and dragging him along.

"I think Remus wanted to come with us," Aly commented.

"Indeed. Now, I'm sure you're bursting with questions," Arion said.

"Why are Sirius Black, prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter, boy-who-lived, with you? Why are you shopping here? Why aren't you with the orphanage people? And, why are you smirking like that?" Hermione asked.

Arion and Aly smiled, gesturing to the bench they had been sitting on previously. "Be prepared for a long story…" Arion said.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

After explaining everything that had been happening in the past couple days (quietly so no one around them could hear, even though it wasn't crowded as it was a Friday), Hermione couldn't bring herself to say anything but "Wow…"

"Look at this, Ari, we've managed to make Hermione speechless for once. Isn't that her job?" Aly asked, pushing Hermione's mouth shut.

"It's a lot to take in. Shall we go to the bookstore now that we've completed our story? We're going to need something other then textbooks to read at Hogwarts," Arion said.

Hermione nodded. "But, shouldn't we study when we go there?"

"Study beforehand. Also, I'm pretty sure we won't need to study all the time. I need some fantasy books to get me through this," Arion said.

Hermione and Aly laughed. "Ari, we're going to a place made of fantasy dreams. Why bring books that have to do with it?" Hermione asked.

"Because I…leave me alone. I don't have a reason, but I what else would I get?" Arion asked.

"Get some odd books that have to do with muggle versions of magic," Aly suggested.

"If I want those, I'll ask Hermione for them since those are probably what she'll be getting," Arion said.

Aly nodded. "Good point."

"You could get some Shakespeare or something," Hermione said, going into the bookstore.

Arion shook her head. "I'll get some of those, possibly. I'll look around."

The three girls separated. Arion went into the fantasy section. She saw the series of books 'Shannara' which she had started the first one and found entertaining. Arion grabbed the five books that they had (she had the feeling that there would be more) along with a book on some mythological creatures that she found interesting. She also grabbed a book on some of the magic concepts of the eastern people.

Arion decided to go and look for Aly and Hermione. Aly was looking at some books that had to do with some teenagers baby-sitting and some other books that were for other ten year-olds. "Find anything interesting?" Arion asked Aly, making Aly jump. She hadn't noticed Arion come up behind her.

"Yes, I have," Aly said, showing a couple of the books she picked out. None of the books she was looking at. There was a book called Witch on Blacktop Mountain along with a series of books called Narnia as well as a book titled Island of the Blue Dolphins.

"Nice books. I might have to borrow them when you're done. Have you seen Hermione?" Arion asked.

Aly pointed to the reference section of the bookstore. "Why?"

"We should probably try and find her and go get dad," Arion said. "It's late. We probably need to get Hermione home and go home ourselves."

"Right. Do you have any money with you?" Aly asked.

Arion nodded. "When I went to Diagon Alley with Professor McGonagall the other day, I got some of the money turned into pounds. I should have enough for all of these."

"Fine. Let's go get 'Mione," Aly said.

Getting Hermione was harder then they thought. "Hermione, can you pay for all of those even?" Arion asked, referring to the stack of books that were even bigger then she was.

Hermione sighed. "No, I don't. I was going to look for you for help on what to put back and what to keep."

Arion looked at some of the books. "Why are you getting books on the Prime Minister?"

"I want to see what possible connections there could be to the magical world in the books," was the reply. Arion and Aly shook their heads, grabbing the five books on the Minister that Hermione had picked out.

"Do you need those math and science books?" Aly asked while Arion put the Prime Minister books away.

"Yes. I want to keep up with the studies in our world," Hermione said.

"Yes, but do you need the Pre-Calc books? Or the Physics book?" Aly asked as Arion was coming back.

"What? Hermione, hand me those books. You don't need them," Arion said with her hands out.

Hermione pouted but handed over the books. Arion shook her head and put those back as well, leaving Hermione with half of her original stack. "That's better. Can you pay for those?" Aly asked.

Hermione thought for a moment. "Do you have about ten pounds I could borrow?"

"I don't, but I think dad does," Aly said, pointing out Sirius who was coming towards them. All the clothes were shrunk and put in his pockets. "Hey, dad, can 'Mione borrow a few pounds?"

"Why not? Did you and Arion find anything?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, we found some books. Where's Harry?" Arion asked.

Sirius looked around and found Harry in the section Arion had been in earlier. "Looking at books. Come on, let's see what he found."

Going over, the group found that Harry had a set of the Lord of the Rings in his hands. "I see you found something too, Harry," Arion said. "See, I'm not the only one getting fantasy books and going to a magical world."

Hermione rolled her eyes as Sirius laughed. "Are we all set?" Sirius asked. Everyone nodded and they checked out the books.

They met up with Remus and Nym outside the bookstore. "Why didn't you come in, Uncle Remus?" Aly asked.

"We wouldn't be able to leave the bookstore. Remus would have wanted everything," Sirius said with a grin on his face.

"Sounds like 'Mione would get along with you," Arion said.

"Are we leaving now?" Harry asked with a yawn.

"Would you like to come over to our house real quick, 'Mione, before we bring you home?" Arion asked.

Hermione blinked. "If it wouldn't be a problem…"

"Can we, dad?" Aly asked.

"Why not? Moony and Nym haven't seen the house yet," Sirius said. "Let's go back to that alley we found earlier."

Walking to the alley (or skipping as was the case with Aly), Hermione was a little confused. How would going to an alley bring them home? Her question was soon answered.

"Everyone pick an adult. The address is 1861 Hanover Drive," Sirius said. Arion and Harry went to Sirius while Aly went to Nym.

"Wha-what are we doing?" Hermione asked, bewildered.

"We're doing something called apparating. Grab a hold of an adults hand and we will be able to go to our house," Arion said.

Hermione nodded, pretending to know what they were talking about, and went over to Remus and took his hand. In a moment, everyone was gone.

They appeared in front of a big house. "Nice, Sirius," Remus said.

Going inside, the three people who were there for the first time had to admit that there was some style to it. "Padfoot, I'm surprised that the house isn't decked out in Gryffindor colors," Remus commented. The rooms were neutral colors with a calming effect on the people in the rooms.

"Isn't it surprising?" Sirius asked, proud of himself.

"Where are your rooms?" Hermione asked.

Aly grabbed the nearest people's hands (Remus and Hermione) and dragged them down the hall. "This way."

Nym and the three who lived there followed in amusement and went to the first room, which was Arion's. "Arion, how long have you lived here?" Hermione asked.

"One day," Arion said.

Hermione blinked. "And your room is already a wreck."

"Hey, I like it this way. Just cluttered…" Arion defended.

There were some clothes on the floor, like she was trying to decide what to wear this morning and couldn't decide. Books were in odd places such as the floor, on the dresser, on Adria's cat carrier…

"Are we done starring at Ari's room? It's not going to get any cleaner," Aly said.

"Shush up," Arion grumbled, going in and putting her new books down on her bed.

Next was Harry's room, which was incredibly neat. Barely anything was out of place and the room was a pale yellow color. "When did you change the room color?" Arion asked.

"I asked Sirius if he could change it to this color. I thought it would be nice to have a bright room for once," Harry commented, gesturing to the yellow color and an orange comforter.

"How can someone keep a room this clean?" Aly asked. Arion narrowed her eyes at her sister.

"You're showing rooms hoping to embarrass us," Arion accused.

"Maybe…" Aly said.

Arion smirked. "Next is Aly's room."

Opening Aly's door, there was a surprise. "Adria! That's where you hid," Arion exclaimed, grabbing her cat.

Looking at Aly's room, it was in a middle state of what Arion's and Harry's were. Some things were not in place, but there was enough to keep people from the same exclamation of surprise as with Arion's room. Arion looked at Aly's clock and exclaimed, "Is it that late? It's 6 o'clock! Hermione needs to get home now."

Sirius nodded. "What's your address?"

Giving her address, Hermione said, "Who's bringing me home?"

"Dad should. You can introduce him to your parents," Arion suggested.

"Who would stay with us?" Harry asked.

"Remus and Nym, obviously," Aly said. "I like that idea. Bring Hermione home, dad."

"What am I, a horse or something?" Sirius asked.

"No, but you are a dog. Go, Sirius," Remus said.

Sirius shook his head and held out a hand for Hermione to take. "Bye, 'Mione," Arion and Aly said while everyone else said, "Bye Hermione."

"Bye everyone," Hermione said. Two seconds later, they were gone.

"What should we do?" Aly asked.

"We could play some soccer," Arion suggested. Everyone agreed to try and there were some entertaining moments with Nym falling.

"Were you born with two left feet or something?" Aly asked.

"You say left like it's a bad thing," Arion said.

"Where is Sirius?" Nym asked, changing the topic.

"Somewhere far, far away," Aly asked. Arion chuckled.

"What's funny?" Remus asked.

"Have you watched Star Wars? I think we bought a copy last night while shopping," Arion said.

Nym, Remus, and Harry shook their heads no. "We can watch them now," Arion suggested.

When Sirius came home that night, all five of them were sound asleep. Sirius shook his head, levitated the kids to their rooms, and put Remus on the couch with Nym on the love seat before going to bed himself.

A/N: First thing I want to say is that I don't really like this chapter. Another thing is I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I plan on trying to do the time that I've seen often when it comes to Harry Potter stories and making the year 1991. If there is something inaccurate, tell me. I was only two at the time, so I don't really know what was going on at the time (except there was a war...). Also, I would have had this up last night but the site wouldn't let me for some reason. Anyways, I hope you all review and please try and tell me this chapter isn't as bad as I think it was. I wanted Hermione to come before Hogwarts started. And the books have little significance but some things might be added later that have to do with them.


	15. Adventure of the Hogwarts Express

_Chapter 14: Adventure on the Hogwarts Express_

_(Again, I do not own Harry Potter. I say this again because some of the things come directly from the first book.)_

Days went by and everyone was getting used to the new environment. Arion taught Sirius and Harry her sports (Sirius liked the bat in baseball) while Harry convinced Arion to study. Aly studied more music and Sirius had allowed Aly to continue going to her school, so Aly studied things for her upcoming school year. Hermione stopped by occasionally, but Arion was the one who went over to her house the most. During this time, Sirius was also able to get complete custody over Arion, Harry, and Aly. A party was held and another food fight began.

Finally, September 1st arrived as a nice sunny day. Everyone was up and ready. Well, almost everyone.

"Arion Black! Wake up!" Aly yelled, throwing Arion's door open.

"Leave m' 'lone," Arion mumbled into her pillow.

Sirius waltzed by the door (because we can all see him doing this). "Train leaves in ninety minutes," he said.

"'hat's nice…wait…" Arion said, jerking out of being almost asleep to the state of being half asleep. "That's an hour and a half, right?"

"Yes, but the train is always on time," Sirius said.

Arion got out of bed, grabbed her clothes (which Aly had convinced her to pick out the night before), and went to get ready.

Half an hour later, she came down looking for Sirius. "Where's dad?"

"He went to go get something. Here he is," Aly said.

Sirius came in from the backyard carrying three boxes. "There you are, squirt. Here, this one's for you," he said, handing one box to Arion, "One for you," he said, handing another box to Aly, "and one for Harry." Sirius went to Harry's room with the last box.

Inside each box were a few items. Each box had a broomstick (that Harry and Arion would have to leave at home…) along with the Quidditch ball of the position each of them would eventually play (snitch for Harry, sealed bludger for Arion, and a quaffle for Aly). There was also a mirror and a ring.

"Dad, what are these for?" Aly asked, holding the mirror and her ring.

"The mirrors are two way mirrors. James and I had them for our detentions, but I thought you may have more uses for them so I made more. Especially you, Aly. The rings I picked out based on what I thought would fit you," Sirius answered. "Are you ready, Arion?"

"Almost. Can you shrink my trunk, dad?" Arion asked.

"Why? It would take from the Hogwarts experience," Sirius said.

Arion starred at her dad for a moment, wondering if he was serious. After the moment, she walked away up to her room, grumbling under her breath. A couple seconds later there were loud bangs as Arion pulled her trunk behind her, cat carrier in her left hand where Adria was heard meowing inside.

"Harry, are you ready?" Sirius called up.

"Yes," Harry said, coming around the corner with his owl cage and trunk.

"Let's go then," Sirius said, grabbing keys. Over the past couple of weeks, Sirius got a car since he was getting tired of apparating everywhere and everyone.

Everyone piled into the car, trunks in the trunk and animals with their owners. Sirius had the radio on and Aly was singing while Harry, Arion, and Sirius were talking about Hogwarts.

Sirius told them how to get to the kitchen, the best way to get away from Filch, and most importantly, how to get Peeves on your side in a confrontation.

"You see, whenever Peeves gets involved in a problem, it will usually mean trouble. However, if you agree to help him with Filch, he'll be on your side. Don't do this everytime because then he will report everything you do to Filch."

"How would you know this?" Harry asked.

"Because we went over board. It didn't take Peeves long to figure out what we were doing…" he trailed off before giving more advice.

Laughing, the new family went into King's Cross. "Dad, is this ticket right?" Arion asked.

"Yes," Sirius said with a smirk.

Aly sighed. "There's some magical way in, isn't there?"

Harry nodded. "That would make sense."

Sirius' smirk disappeared a little. "How could you guess?" he asked.

"I've seen Arion get that smirk on her face when she knows something no one else knows," Aly said.

Arion blinked in surprise. "I do?"

"It's dead annoying," a voice said behind them.

Aly and Arion rolled their eyes. "Hello 'Mione."

"Hello Black's," Hermoine greeted.

"Hello Hermione. Where are your parents?" Sirius asked.

"Standing by the platforms 9 and 10, looking slightly confused. I was looking for anyone with an owl to help," Hermione answered, leading the group over to her parents.

"It's rather simple to go through. You just have to walk through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10," Sirius said. When the kids looked at him like he had lost it in Azkaban, Sirius went, "What? I'm not kidding. If it'll make you feel better, I'll go first."

"Okay," all four of them said, causing Sirius to roll his eyes.

While Hermione explained things to her parents, Aly, Arion, and Harry were watching Sirius. He gave them a grin before walking right through the wall.

"That looks simple enough," Arion commented.

"You can go next, then," Aly suggested, not noticing Hermione and her parents going through.

"How 'bout oldest first?" Arion said, referring to Hermione who had a September birthday, making her almost a year older then Arion.

"She left. Go," Aly said pushing Arion across the barrier.

Arion made it to the other side, followed by an amused Harry who was followed by Aly.

"I'd ask you what took you so long, but Hermione already told us about your pointless argument out there," Sirius said.

There was no response. The three kids were too busy staring in shock at the train and all the people around it.

"Wow…"Harry said.

"As lovely as this little trip down memory lane is for me, we should try and get you three kids settled," Sirius said, trying not to think of when he used to come to this platform. Too many faces of people he cared for missing.

"Hopefully we will be able to find a compartment…" Arion trailed off.

"Bye mum, bye dad," Hermione said, giving her parents a hug.

"Bye Hermione. Be good," her dad said.

"Study hard, but don't go overboard. And don't forget to write. Arion, promise me you'll get her nose out her books," her mum said.

"Aye aye, ma'am," Arion said, saluting Mrs. Granger.

"Would you mind watching Aly for a moment?" Sirius asked.

"Not at all," Mrs. Granger said.

"Bye, Aly," Harry said. Aly gave him a hug and a "good-bye" before turning to Arion.

Managing to hold back tears at having to say good-bye to someone who was with her pretty much every moment of every day for seven years, Arion gave Aly a hug. "Bye Aly. Remember, we're coming home for Christmas, not to mention you can call me anytime on the mirrors and you'll be here with us next year," Arion said, trying to calm down a slightly sniffling Aly.

Aly nodded, then said, "Good-bye, Ari." She didn't trust herself to keep the tears from escaping if she said anything more. Arion gave Aly a quick kiss on the forehead and went onto the train, eyes flashing.

Hermione gave Aly a quick hug before following Sirius, Harry, and Arion to the train.

They soon came to a compartment towards the center of the train. "One of the best places to be, no one thinks to look for you in the center," Sirius said. Of course, he would know.

Sirius was helping Hermione with her trunk while Harry and Arion were trying to put their trunks up, causing them to drop them on their feet. "Fudge!" Arion exclaimed.

A couple moments later (while Harry and Arion were making sure their feet weren't broken), two boys with red hair came over. "Need some help?" they asked.

Arion nodded and said, "Yes, please. Dad's trying to take care of 'Mione's trunk. Probably too many books…"

The two laughed. Belatedly, Arion realized they were twins. They seemed to be completely identical, though Arion thought the one helping her had a slightly thinner face then the one helping Harry.

After lifting the trunks, Harry wiped the sweat off his forehead, uncovering his scar. "Thank you." He said.

The twins saw the scar. "Hold on. That scar," one said.

"Are you…" the other started.

"Harry Potter?" they asked.

"Ummm…yes?" Harry said, slightly unnerved.

The twins gawked before they heard their mother calling their names. Leaving, Arion saw them look at the number over their compartment.

Sirius had watched the scene with a slight smile on his face. "Well, kiddos, the train's about to leave," he started, grabbing Harry and Arion into a big hug, which they both returned.

"Bye, dad," Arion said.

"Bye Sirius," Harry and Hermione said. Sirius left the compartment and looking out the window, they could see him join Hermione's parents and Aly, who had a few tears rolling down her face.

Off to the side, there was a group of red-heads talking, including the twins they had seen earlier. Straining their ears, Harry, Arion, and Hermione could her the twins talking about how they met Harry Potter on the train. Arion and Hermione couldn't do anything but laugh at the look of horror on Harry's face after hearing the little girl with them squeal about coming onto the train and meeting him.

"I wonder what year she will be in…" Arion wondered out loud.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because I can't wait to see how things will be when she does meet you. Wait a second…" Arion trailed off, thoughtfully, not noticing the pink tinge to Harry's cheeks but looking at the mum closely.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"That's Mrs. Weasley. I met her after the trial when she gave dad a much needed hair-cut," Arion answered.

At this point, all the kids going to Hogwarts were on the train. Once the train started moving, Arion, Harry, and Hermione poked their heads out to see two red-headed girls running with the train. They laughed hearing one of the twins offering to send their sister, Ginny, a toilet seat.

Once the train was out of sight, there was a knock on the door and the youngest red-head opened the door. "Do you mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else is full," he said.

"Not at all," Hermione said, giving him room to sit across from Harry. "I'm Hermione Granger," she introduced.

"Ron Weasley," Ron said.

"Arion Black," Arion said.

Before Harry could introduce himself, the compartment doors opened. "There you are, Ronnekins," one said.

"We were worried when we couldn't find you," the other said.

"But we see you only ran into Harry and the two lovely ladies we have yet to hear names from. I'm Fred," the first said.

"And I'm George Weasley. You two would be…?" George asked.

After Arion and Hermione introduced themselves to the twins, they left, telling the about a tarantula their friend had. Arion wanted to go see it, but Hermione gave her a look promising pain if she suggested it.

Ron was staring at Harry. "Are you really Harry Potter?" he asked.

Harry gave Arion a strange look before answering, "Yes…"

"Do you really have that…scar?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded and lifted his bangs to show Ron the scar. "Wicked…" Ron said in awe.

"I think I'm going to try and meet more people. Does anyone want to come with?" Hermione asked.

"I'll come," Arion said, leaving the two boys in the compartment by themselves.

Walking through the aisles, there were many interesting things. Some of the older students worked on spells while younger students tried to make friends to have at Hogwarts. Arion got some odd looks, but nobody said anything to her. Arion did get to see the tarantula, which she thought was awesome.

Turning to leave the compartment, Arion was stopped by one of the twins calling her name, causing her to turn around. It was Fred.

"Yes?" Arion asked.

"Your dad is Sirius Black, right?" George asked.

"Yes, he is…" Arion trailed off, wondering where this was heading.

"Really? What is he like?" the boy with the tarantula, Lee Jordan, asked.

"Umm…what do you mean? Go on ahead, 'Mione, I'll catch up to you later," Arion said to Hermione, who looked like she wanted to leave, but wanted to make sure Arion was all right as well.

"All right. See you later, Ari," Hermione said, leaving and going down the aisle.

"We're just curious about him. Also, we've heard he was a great prankster," Fred said.

Arion smiled and shook her head. "I'd love to talk, but I'd like to get back to my compartment sometime soon. How about I tell you after we get settled into Hogwarts?" Arion suggested. She watched as the three boys seemed to communicate without a word and then nodded with smile on their faces.

"That's fine. We just want to hear some stories about his troublemaking," George said.

Arion smiled and waved as she left to head back to the compartment Harry and Ron stayed in.

Ron was telling Harry about his siblings. "Interesting spider your brother's friend had. You should have come to see," Arion said.

Ron shivered. "Not spiders."

"They also want to know about dad. I wonder what I should say? He's an ex-prisoner of Azkaban who participates in food fights and doesn't like green hair?" Arion thought out loud.

"Wait, your dad is Sirius Black?" Ron asked.

"Yes. He was standing with Aly, my adopted sister, at the train station," Arion said.

Harry thought for a moment. "Ron, didn't you say your sister was a year younger?"

"Yeah, I did. Ginny should be coming next year," Ron stated.

"Maybe she could meet Aly sometime. Aly's joining us next year as well," Arion said thoughtfully.

A boy walked into the compartment with a sad look on his face. "Have you seen a toad?" he asked. When the three shook their heads, he cried out, "I lost him!" and left the compartment, leaving Arion to blink.

"That was odd…"

"If I had a toad, I would be quick to lose it. Mind you, I have Scabbers, so I can't talk," Ron said, pulling out a rat who was missing a toe.

Arion blinked a few times. "How long have you had that rat?" she asked.

Ron seemed thoughtful. "I don't know. It was Percy's. Kind of plain. I have a spell to change the color of his fur. Do you want to see?" he asked.

"Sure," Harry said, watching. Arion shrugged, wondering where she had seen that rat before…

Hermione walked in as Ron was about to start the spell. "Have either of you seen a toad?" she asked. "Neville lost one."

"Oh, he came by a couple minutes ago. Sorry, no," Arion said.

"Are you about to do a spell, Ron? Let's see it," Hermione said, sitting in the seat next to Arion.

Ron cleared his throat. "_Sunshine, daises, butter mellow/Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow_." Nothing happened except it caused Scabbers to take his nose out of the candy container.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the rat. "Are you sure that's a real spell? I've tried some spells for practice and they've all worked for me. Didn't they work for you and Harry as well, Arion?"

"Yes…a couple worked," Arion said.

"Anyway, I've been asking around and Gryffindor sounds like the best house. You should get ready, though. The train is going to arrive soon," Hermione said, walking out of the compartment.

"I don't care what house I'm in as long as she's not in it. Stupid spell…Fred gave it to me, probably knew it was a dud," Ron said, glaring at his wand.

Arion frowned and was about to say something to Hermione's defense when Harry changed the subject. "Hermione is just a little enthusiastic. Did she have any idea about magic before her letter, Ari?"

Arion, who was no longer paying much attention to the conversation, changed her hair to match Hermione's. Ron blinked in surprise.

"We can take that as a yes," Harry said with a hint of laughter at Ron's shock. Arion suddenly felt a suffocating feeling in the compartment so she grabbed her uniform and left without another word, leaving Harry and Ron to look after her in confusion.

"What's her problem?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure," Harry said, frowning and fingering the ring in his pocket. Knowing he would have to ask Arion later, Harry changed the subject to the different houses and Quidditch.

Meanwhile, Arion was in the bathroom splashing cold water on her face. "What was with that odd feeling in there?" she said out-loud. Not getting an answer (not that she expected one…) she quickly got dressed in the uniform, scowling at the skirt. Putting her outfit in a hamper that would put the clothes in her trunk, Arion left the bathroom.

Nothing much happened the rest of the train ride. Arion hooked up with Hermione and Neville to look for the toad. Nevilee was confused for a while about Arion and Hermione's hair being the same before Arion explained she was a metamorphmagus, changing her hair to short, black, and spikey, resembling Harry's. All the while, during the conversations, Arion's mind was on what happened in the compartment.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait. If you want the details, I can put them up on the profile. The biggest thing was I had a fight with this chapter and the beginning of the next. The next chapter should come out faster. Sorry about the chapter name, but I couldn't think of anything. Thanks for reading and please review!


	16. Bloody Conversations

_Chapter 15: Bloody Conversations_

(No, there is no blood, though it does fit in a way. Also, reference to HP&SS/PS later as it says)

After getting little or no reaction from Arion for the better part of the remaining trip, Hermione was slightly worried. Arion usually wouldn't shut up. "Ari, why are you so quiet?" she asked, worried.

Arion's mind snapped from what happened in the compartment with the boys to the present. "Huh? Oh, sorry, zoned there for a while," she said, trying to shake her feelings.

"I was asking you and Neville what you thought the sorting was going to be like," Hermione said.

Neville shivered. "Maybe we have to fight something big and hairy," he said nervously.

Arion shook her head. "They wouldn't make us do that. Too many students would complain or tell their parents, who would become furious…" she trailed off, trying to think of a way they could be sorted.

"We'll probably have to cast a spell," Hermione said, confident. Neville looked more nervous then before, if possible.

Arion rolled her eyes at her bookworm friend. "'Mione, not everyone can memorize tons of books worth of information in four weeks. Maybe we'll draw lots." Hermione scowled in response to the suggestion.

"I'll probably be in Hufflepuff. Everyone was surprised I even made it into Hogwarts," Neville said glumly.

"Hufflepuff doesn't sound like a bad house anyways, Neville. After all, the loyal people go there, not the weak," Hermione said, trying to cheer him up.

"Besides, there are only a few differences between them and Slytherin," Arion said thoughtfully.

Hermione and Neville looked at her like Hermione had that one time Arion experimented with her eyes orange and hair blue. "What?" they exclaimed.

"Think about it. Slytherin's tend to try to work behind the scenes and remain loyal to what they believe in. There can be a cunning Hufflepuff. The major attribute the two houses have different is Slytherin's are, above all, very ambitious and usually step on toes to get what they want," Arion explained.

Blinking at Arion, Hermione and Neville were so shocked at her points no one said another word until the train stopped (all of five minutes later…).

Once it stopped, the three quickly got off the train. Since Arion wasn't paying the closest attention and there were so many people around, she got pushed away from Hermione and Neville. Shrugging, she moved over to where a group of three first years were standing by a boat.

Suddenly hearing a loud, booming voice call out, "Firs' years, this way," and "No mor'n 4 to a boa'," Arion quickly got into a boat with the three students. Two were identical girls while the other was a boy.

"Hello. My name is Arion. Who are you?"

The two sisters were distracted by their conversation (which was in another language, though they still looked bored), but the boy answered, "My name is Blaise."

"Are you excited about starting at school? I know my friend Hermione is," Arion smiled, thinking about how Hermione had memorized all the schoolbooks.

"I'm happy to be going. I imagine your friend is muggleborn?"

"Yes, she is. Though, I'm not sure what difference it makes," Arion said, prepared to defend her friend if necessary.

"Some members of wizarding society fancy themselves better then others because of their blood. A lot of purebloods feel they have more of a place in society while halfbloods are either in the middle or more towards the bottom end," Blaise explained.

Arion processed this information. "Where do you stand with the blood issue?"

"I prefer to stay neutral (A/N: Switzerland!). I've heard talk of politics all my life."

"Ah...well, all of this talk is reminding me more of World War II..."

"That would be accurate. What did you say your surname was?"

Arion smiled. "I didn't, but my last name is Black."

"I thought so. Your dad was one of the only people either brave or foolish enough to go against his whole family."

"Really? I didn't know that," Arion said thoughtfully.

The boats landed and conversations stopped. Looking around, she noticed Hermione and Neville had stayed together and were getting out of the same boat as Harry and Ron.

Blaise got out of the boat and offered Arion his hand. "Thanks," Arion said, taking his hand and clumsily coming out of the boat.

"Don't mention it. You don't seem to be the type to wear many skirts," Blaise observed.

Arion was about to reply when she heard someone shout "Ari!" Turning, she saw Hermione wave her over. Looking to where Blaise had been, she noticed he was gone.

Puzzled, Arion quickly made her way to Hermione and Neville. "Who were you talking to, Ari?" Hermione asked.

"He said his name was Blaise. I never found out his last name," Arion answered.

Ron was busy telling Harry what Fred told him the sorting was when McGonagall came. "Welcome to Hogwarts. Momentarily, you will each be sorted into one of the four houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While here, you house is like your family as good behavior gains you points and incorrect behavior will cost you points. I will go and come back to bring you in, so take the time to straighten up." And she quickly left.

Not even two seconds after McGonagall left, the boy Arion saw at Madam Malkin's approached Arion's little group. He was about the size of Harry, maybe an inch or two taller.

"So, what they are saying on the train is true. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts," he said.

"So it would seem," Arion said in the same indifferent tone, still not liking the boy's attitude.

The boy turned to look at her with cold eyes. "I don't remember asking you. Who are you?"

"Arion Black. Anything about it?" she asked, challenging.

The boy's face twisted into a look of disgust. "Oh. You must be the daughter of Sirius Black," he said in a tone of voice that made it sound like she was the spawn of garbage. He quickly turned to Harry. "My name's Draco Malfoy." Ron snorted, causing Malfoy to sneer at him. "Don't need to bother asking who you are. Red hair, second hand robes. You must be a Weasley. You'll learn some people are better then others. I can help you there," Malfoy finished, putting out his hand for Harry to shake, giving suggestive looks directed at Ron, Hermione and Arion, like they weren't worthy.

Harry didn't even look at the offered hand. "I think I can sort out the wrong sort for myself and since Arion is now my adopted sister, I think I'm doing good so far," he said.

Arion had a look of anger on her face while Malfoy had a look of astonishment. Before anyone could say anything, though, McGonagall came in.

"We're ready for you," she said, opening the doors to allow them in.

ARION'S POV

I wasn't completely amazed at the sight like some of the people around me, buy the Great Hall did seem to grow larger. Hermione was whispering things she learned from her books. I half listened, concentrating on my surroundings.

Looking around, it was easy to point out the different houses. The scarlet and gold clad redheads at the far right table were obviously Gryffindor. The front right was decorated in blue and bronze, making the table Ravenclaw with the green and silver table on the left being Slytherin. The last table was for the Hufflepuffs, who were next to the Gryffindors in black and yellow.

Walking to the front with a muttering Hermione and silent Ron, Harry, and Neville, I had to stifle a snicker. Sitting on a stool was a hat. Neville saw the hat, then turned to me, remembering my "drawing lots" comment. Before anything more could be said, though, the hat's "mouth" opened and started to sing:

_Refer to the Sorting Hat's song in SS or PS, depending on where you're from_

During the song, I thought about the trait I found the most important to me. I couldn't pick one, though Ravenclaw sounded perfect for 'Mione. When the song finished, I heard Ron mutter, "I'm going to kill Fred. He was going on about that troll."

Lightly laughing, I listened as McGonagall started calling the people down with "Abbott, Hannah." A girl with pigtails nervously walked up to the stool and McGonagall put the hat on her head. After a moment, the hat shouted out "Hufflepuff!"

There was some polite applause coming from the yellow and black table before McGonagall called out "Black, Arion."

I gulped, nervous, but stepping forward with a blank face. I knew my eyes were giving me away because some of the teachers had raised eyebrows, probably from my eyes. They flash different colors based on nerves.

As the hat went over my eyes, I felt a huge jolt of energy go through me. "Ouch," I thought, jumping.

"I agree, that was unusual," I heard in my head.

"So, you're the Sorting Hat," I pointed out, kind of needlessly I thought after.

"Obviously. Now, where do you go? Hmmmm...books aren't completely your favorite objects so Ravenclaw wouldn't be good for you. You're loyal but at the same time, you take too long to gain that loyalty most of the time, making Hufflepuff wrong as well. Now, Gryffindor or Slytherin?"

I thought about all that I had heard about my father's family and decided I didn't want to be like them. "I don't want to go into Slytherin. Can I go into Gryffindor?" I asked.

"Gryffindor is fine. Be warned, though, griffin child. There are people who would try to use the powers you have. Guard the secret and use some of your Slytherin qualities. GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted.

I got up to some applause but mainly whispers. Looking around, I guess a lot of people expected me to be in Slytherin. I walked down to the Gryffindor table and sat across from Fred and George.

"Well, fancy meeting..."

"You here, Miss Black," they said.

"Thanks for the welcome," I said, partially puzzling over the hat's statement. Why did fate decide to give me so many things to ponder? Something tell me that "griffin child" is NOT a nickname. And then there;s still the feeling I got with the rat, almost a familiar tingling feeling...

"Hey, Arion, wake up time," two voices said, jumping me.

"Huh?" I commented intelligently.

"You're missing the sorting," Fred said.

"Deep thinking's for Ravenclaws," George added.

"Shhh!" another redhead said. Percy, I believe. "Pay attention and no corrupting the first years."

Fred and George started snickering, putting a smile on my face and allowing to push away my thoughts in time for Hermione's turn. After a length of time where she seemed to be arguing with it, 'Mione joined me at the Gryffindor table.

"How did you make it here? I thought you'd be Ravenclaw for sure," I commented, probably with a dumb look on my face.

"I wanted to be in Gryffindor," was all Hermione would say.

Silently puzzling over the new mystery of my best friend's sorting, I looked up in time to see Neville join us at the table. The next person was Malfoy who saw me and sneered. My eyes narrowed and as the hat shouted "Slytherin," his hair turned deep green.

Everyone laughed. I chuckled, but mainly blushed a little.

I didn't get away with it unnoticed. "You aren't laughing hard yet there's color in your cheeks. You either easily flush or you had something to do with that," Fred commented.

I could feel even more blood rush to my face. "Oh, look, the Sorting's started up again," I pointed out, trying to take the attention away from me. McGonagall had started to call last names with "P".

"Potter, Harry" was called and everyone around me burst into whispers.

END POV

Arion and Harry, before being consumed by the hat, wore identical looks of confusion at all the whispering. The whispering continued, especially since Harry took a few moments longer then everyone thought he would.

The whispering grew louder, confusing Arion. "Why is everyone anxious?" Arion asked out loud, not expecting an answer from anyone.

"Everyone expected Harry Potter to be an automatic Gryffindor," George explained.

Arion paid closer attention to Harry, who seemed to be mouthing something. Her curiosity was sparked even more at the look of relief on Harry's face when the hat shouted "Gryffindor!"

There was applause from every table except for Slytherin. The Gryffindor table seemed to erupt in sound as Harry came and plopped down into the seat next to Arion.

Once the sound died down a bit, Arion turned to Harry. "Let me guess; the hat wanted you in Slytherin."

"How could you guess?" Harry asked, surprised.

"The mouthing. You would only do that to not be in Slytherin," I commented.

"Huh..." Harry replied, focusing back on the sorting.

Arion rolled her eyes before a conversation with Ron popped into her head, causing her to look at Fred and George. "What are you going sitting by first years? I thought Ron said you were in third year..."

Fred nodded before replying, "We're starting the corruption in your minds. Though, you don't seem to need help," he commented as an afterthought.

Arion frowned. "That wasn't my fault. It was an accident."

George was about to say something about accidents when a "Weasley, Ronald" reached their ears and they looked up. Ron was looking decidedly green under his freckles, but he needn't worry. The hat was on his head for two seconds before shouting "Gryffindor!" Ron came and sat next to Harry.

Arion kept watching. One boy was left and that was Blaise. McGonagall called out "Zabini, Blaise." After about thirty seconds to a minute passed before the hat shouted out "Slytherin!"

Arion sighed. "This is going to be a long year," she thought.

A/N: Yay! An update that took less then two months. I'm proud of myself. -snickering- Anyways, now that I'm done applauding myself, the next chapter is being written, Sirius makes an appearance...some other items make an appearance...that's all I'm telling. Yes, the nickname is important. It'll appear later. Have a nice day and review :P  
Oh, and if anyone wants to put in suggestions, I do take them into account. One reviewer made a comment about hooking Arion up with one of the twins. I had been thinking about it, but I think I've changed my mind.


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